STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Urging Government to impose blanket ban on private practice of doctors, social activist Balvinder Singh said that the initiative would definitely enhance performance of medicos thereby ensuring better patient care.
While addressing a press conference in Jammu on Thursday, Balvinder Singh along with other members of Civil Society including Sharanjit Singh, Mahesh Kotwal and Iqbal Singh, said that health institutions like AIIMS (Delhi), PGI (Chandigarh) and JIPMER Pondicherry, which were opened about half a century back, are still shinning like pole stars in respective regions and providing best possible services. Not allowing private practice to faculty was the basic reason for preventing collapse of academic and medicare standards of these institutions, he added.
Balvinder said that at one stage there was talk of tagging ban on private practice in medical colleges, with new rules for fast promotion of teachers in medical colleges (by implementing MCI rules). “New rules for fast promotion got implemented, but proposal for banning private practice got stashed. Unfounded stories of dearth of staff and faculty are repeatedly circulated to influence and frighten authorities by calculated misinformation, whenever a move starts to ban private practice in medical colleges. In fact there will never be any dearth if provision of lateral entry is extended for a few vacancies which may arise off and on,” he asserted, adding that I am sure that none will leave the secure Govt medical college jobs since these jobs are permanent and non-transferable.
Balvinder further said that banning private practice will enhance standard of medical colleges, will ensure good patient care and availability of faculty at emergency, stop diversion of patients to private clinics, enhance standard of education to budding doctors besides improving quality of performance. He urged upon administration to immediately impose blanket ban on private practice of doctors of Govt medical colleges for enhancing standard of J&K Health institutions.