[Ansari Mushtaque Ahmed MA, Secretary Jadeed Anjuman Taleem (JAT) Trust, (in the center), after the inauguration of Health Care Centre for the students of JAT Campus on December 04, 2017. (ummid.com photo)]
Malegaon: Amid rising concerns by various sections over doctors charging hefty fees and following “cut practice”, doctors in Malegaon were on Monday urged to make the city free of such corrupt exercise.
“With skyrocketing medical bills, health treatment and services have become so expensive that even the middle class is finding them hard to afford.
"For small and trivial health issues patients are being referred to costly diagnosis tests. All this is done in a lust for money.
“Doctors in Malegaon will do a great favour for the people if they abandon this corrupt cut practice and make the city a place of affordable medical treatments and services”, Mushtaque Ahmed MA, Secretary Jadeed Anjuman Taleem (JAT) Trust, said.
At the same time, he advised the local doctors to form small groups and establish hospitals to provide medical facilities at affordable rates.
“You should form small groups and establish hospitals which will provide all kind of medical facilities under one roof. It will avoid sending patients to other cities, and will be helpful for patients who need emergency medical aid”, he said while addressing the inaugural ceremony of in-campus Health Care Centre for the students of JAT Educational Campus in Malegaon.
Malegaon, a town of over 06 lakh people, is still lacking in a good hospital, and many a time patients are advised to be shifted to other cities for medical treatment.
However, it is alleged that most of the time doctors refer patients to hospitals in other cities as they get a huge amount in the form of “cuts”.
The term “cut” is normally referred to the commission paid by big and multi-specialty hospitals, pathologists, radiologists and others in the field to doctors for sending patients to them. Doctors call it “referral fees” and find no harm in receiving money in this manner.
But, those objecting to it say it is against the Hippocratic Oath taken for ethical conduct. The Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines also prohibit the disbursement of commission by hospitals for patients referred to them.
“A physician shall not give, solicit, or receive nor shall he offer to give solicit or receive, any gift, gratuity, commission or bonus in consideration of or return for the referring, recommending or procuring of any patient for medical, surgical or other treatment.
“A physician shall not directly or indirectly, participate in or be a party to act of division, transference, assignment, subordination, rebating, splitting or refunding of any fee for medical, surgical or other treatment”, the MCI Code of Ethics Regulations, 2002 Chapter 6 Unethical Acts says.
Interestingly, the advice to Malegaon doctors by Mushtaq MA came few days after a racket of referrals was exposed in which people working for big hospitals admitted offering commission ranging between 10 and 30 per cent to doctors and smaller hospitals or nursing homes.
Undertaken by Cobrapost Special Correspondent Umesh Patil, the investigation exposed almost all marquee names among private health care providers, namely, Fortis Hospital (with a branch each in Mumbai and Bangalore), JP Hospital, Metro Hospital in Noida;
Yashoda Hospital and Columbia Asia Hospital (with a branch in Bangalore) in Ghaziabad; MAX Hospitals (in Saket and Patparganj), Apollo Hospital (with a branch in Bangalore), BLK Super Speciality Hospital, all in Delhi;
Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, Hiranandani Hospital, Asian Heart Institute, Seven Hills Hospital and Jaslok Hospital, all in Mumbai, and Narayana Hrudayalaya College of Nursing and Mallya Hospital both in Bangalore.
Post Comments
| Quick links