The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Lokayukta calls for checking exploitation of poor patients

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, May 18, 2008
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Lokayukta calls for checking exploitation of poor patients

Special Correspondent

‘It’s unfortunate that doctors have converted the profession into
a trade’

BANGALORE: Lokayukta N. Santosh Hegde on Saturday said that preventing the exploitation of poor patients was the crux of medical ethics in the country.

“When the income of society has gone up in a lopsided manner, is it ethical to charge the same amount for treating the poor patients,” he asked and set the ball rolling for a panel discussion on “Medical Ethics at Crossroad,” jointly organised by the Felicitation Committee of Dr. V. Parameshvara and the Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan.

Mr. Hegde said the increasing cost of medical education and plain greed were, apparently, the major causes for the fall in medical ethics.

Craze to acquire postgraduate degree and specialisation, and doctors confining themselves to urban centres with affluent population had led to poor healthcare facilities in the rural areas.

It was unfortunate that doctors had converted the profession into a trade and had made the huge costs incurred on their education the ground for making money, he said.

The Lokayukta also spoke about how doctors unnecessarily referred patients to diagnostic centres and got “kickbacks” from such centres.

The Lokayukta said that every day he received at least half-a-dozen complaints on malpractices and inadequate facilities at government hospital across the State.

Dr. Parameshvara, considered an authority on medical ethics, gave a historical perspective of medical ethics and said that even in ancient India there were “quacks and fakes” and they were referred to as “prathirupakas” and “kuvaidyas.”

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Karnataka