name some of the malpractices which still exists in india
Answers
New Delhi: Irrational prescriptions, bribes for referrals and unnecessary investigations are the most common forms of corruption in India’s health sector, the British Medical Journal (BMJ) reported.
On 24 February, BMJ published three papers on medical malpractice, regulations and whistleblower protection in India, raising serious concerns over healthcare fraud in the country. In a series of interviews, Arun Gadre, a Pune-based gynaecologist and health activist, recorded statements of 78 doctors from Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Pune. Of them, 64 were private practitioners, five were from government institutes and nine from charitable hospitals.
Each doctor was asked to give examples of malpractices. The shocking answers ranged from “a general practitioner in Maharashtra, who said that doctors get ₹ 30,000-40,000 for referring patients for angioplasty" or a gynaecologist “performing sonography without indications in pregnant women, then fabricating false reports of cervical abnormalities and advising the women to have cervical stitches, with the pretext of preventing miscarriage".
The article states that the system was perpetuated as “few patients request a second opinion, and the doctor does not give them any documents to avoid being found out".
On the other hand, the BMJ report states, “wealthy patients are admitted directly to intensive care and several thousand rupees are pocketed by the doctors". Gadre sums up the investigation saying, “These interviews underscore one fact—paying money does not guarantee good healthcare. The private healthcare system largely treats patients as revenue generators, without rationality or medical logic."