Barred Doctors continue their private practice

Despite the fact that private practice of SK Institute of Medical Science (SKIMS) doctors has been declared as “criminal offence” a good number of senior doctors of the Institute “indulge in the practice”.
“Ours is a tertiary care hospital and private practice of doctors is not only strictly banned but very dangerous as well. In a tertiary care institute, doctors (especially consultants) have to stay till late evening. Basically, doctors at SKIMS are not meant for private practice,” said a senior doctor at SKIMS who did not wish to reveal his identity.
According to the doctor, 2800 doctors are jobless adding, “Give them level-playing field.” The doctor adds, “There are doctors who have cleared MBBS in 1990’s and are still without a job.”
Referring to off-shoots of the continuing private practice, the doctor says that there are innumerable cases where doctors take money from the clients at their respective private clinics and then use Out Patient Department (OPD) and operation theatres of SKIMS for their treatment.
These practitioner uses OPD card of the hospital at their private clinic, prescribes investigation on cards and the technicians in the hospital conduct medical tests of the patients accordingly. Thus giving the impression that the doctor has examined the patient in a hospital.
“This incurs lot of money and roughly it runs in crores, annually,” the doctor says. Citing an example, the doctor adds “CT scan done here costs a patient Rs. 700 whereas in the market it costs Rs. 1700.”
“This at times leads to doctor-patient tussle,” says the doctor adding, “Sometimes, the tussle becomes violent and administration has to intervene. In most of the cases, we are responsible as the patients who attend the private clinics of the doctors want to be examined first, which infuriates other patients who are waiting since hours.”
Many a times, adds the doctor, “senior consultants are not available for patient-examination and they send their juniors. Even during emergencies, consultants are not there and they have to be called.”
Private practice, he says, is a serious issue and asks, “If it is a criminal offence why government is silent over it?” adding, “Law is there but implementation by the government is important which is entirely missing.”
The doctor hints towards a strong nexus between these practitioners and local police stations. “There are reports where these practitioners pay Rs. 5000 to concerned SHOs and Rs 10,000 to the police stations,” says the doctor.
Describing doctors who indulge in private practice, while working at SKIMS, as “bizarre” practitioners, the doctor says, “A group of practitioners have held this hospital as hostage and they are hand-in-glove with ministers. I see some invisible hand from New Delhi doing all this. New Delhi is against two institutions here - Islamia College of Science and Technology and SK Institute of Medical Sciences.”
Since research is conducted in a tertiary care hospital, consultants as such have to stay for evening hours. “Unfortunately, most of them come hospital late (at noon) and leave early (around 3 P M), government has all these reports but no action is taken,” says the doctor. For teaching institute, private practice is “killing” and it is banned by way of law.
No doubt, he adds, research is conducted here but it suffers considerably as “good number” of senior doctors indulges in private practice. The hospital, according to the senior doctor, sans equipment; common hospital items like ECG machines are missing. “The institute owns 15-20 ECG machines but they have all broken down. Presently, there is only one ECG machine that caters to the entire hospital,” says the doctor.
The tertiary hospital was commissioned in 1982 when the population of Srinagar was 7.5 lakh, but with population touching 15 lakh, the hospital has not been upgraded. “Nothing new came up in a big way. There is lot of pressure on the hospital. When quantity is more, quality deteriorates,” says the doctor. This 600 bedded-hospital caters to 1200-1500 patients per day in the OPD, “service is good but more improvements are required.”Director SKIMS, Dr. Abdul Hamid Zargar was not available for comment.