The state government of Telangana is currently considering a plan to completely ban the private practice of doctors while working in government hospitals.
Even though there are currently strong regulations aimed to discourage the doctors employed in the government hospitals from not taking up a private practice, the authorities have failed to implement these regulations properly. And there are allegations made by people that the majority of doctors who are employed in the government sector are also at the same time either working in other private hospitals on a part-time basis or running their own parallel clinics alongside the government hospitals in which they are working.
According to state health department officials of Telangana, this kind of conflicting dual practice both in the public and private sector by a doctor employed by the state government of Telangana is not in accordance with the respective rules. It is actually termed as illegal and unethical. In the purview of these conditions, the state health department of Telangana is now considering the possibility of imposing a complete ban on the privacy practices of the doctors employed by the state government hospital of Telangana.
“We want the government doctors to work with full dedication towards the patients in the government hospitals. As the government wants to provide the highest quality healthcare services to the people, then such parallel private practice by a government doctor will become a hindrance in the way of a doctor’s sincere and dedicated efforts to serve the patient in government hospitals. Considering this, the health experts and policymakers are deliberating on introducing a clause to implement the ban on government doctors taking up a private practice,” Dr. G Srinivas Rao observed. Dr. Rao is the public health director of the state government of Telangana.
Most probably, the state health authorities of the Telangana are likely to make the new clause effective for the new recruits who are to be taken into the government hospital service in the coming days.
In fact, the state government of Telangana had decided to ban doctors employed by the state government hospitals to stop from private practice, on the lines of what the state government of Andhra Pradesh has done. The state government cabinet of Andra Pradesh has recently decided to ban the private practice of doctors employed in state government hospitals.
However, some local health experts are of the view that the state government of Telangana’s plan to implement a ban on private practice by the doctors employed in state government hospitals may not be successful because there are several thousand doctors currently working in different government hospitals across the state of Telangana and tracking each and every one of these doctors is going to be an arduous task. It must be noted that earlier in 1983 also, a similar ban was imposed by the state government of Andhra Pradesh government of the time, but it was never implemented after it faced stiff resistance from the members of the doctor’s association.
“Instead of taking coercive and suppressive measures, if the government comes out with proactive and positive measures like providing incentives for working overtime and recognizing the doctors for their best services will be more encouraging and may not attract resistance,” Dr. Radha observed. He is a doctor employed in the government hospital of Nalgonda district.
The reader must note that the state government of Telangana is also planning to install CCTV cameras in all the Primary Health Care (PHC) centers to monitor the healthcare workers. Moreover, there are plans to introduce a Global Positioning System (GPS) in the vehicles of doctors employed by the state government and take action against anyone who may be part of the referral system to private hospitals.
