ACTION ON PRIVATE HOSPITALS, HEALTH SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT DOCTORS AND HISPITALS IN DISARRAY

ACTION ON PRIVATE HOSPITALS, HEALTH SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT DOCTORS AND HISPITALS IN DISARRAY

24-AUG-ENG 1

RAJIV NAYAN AGRAWAL

BUXAR------------------------These days, as per the orders of the High Court, raids are being conducted on private hospitals in Bihar, many hospitals are being sealed, while many are being investigated by giving notice under departmental action. Now the big question is whether the High Court's order is only for action against those running private hospitals, or some advisory has been issued for government doctors as well.

The High Court has not given any kind of guidelines to government hospitals and doctors. While efforts are being made to make government hospitals hi-tech in Bihar, the government is silent on the poor condition of treatment, but the High Court also seems to refuse to take cognizance of this. During a hearing in the year 2019, the division bench of Justice Jyoti Sharan and Justice Arvind Srivastava, while hearing a case, had said that whether to ban or not to ban private practice is a policy decision of the government. The court cannot interfere in this, while the petitioner told the court that government doctors are not present on time in any government hospital. Despite spending billions of rupees, the poor people are not getting medical facilities in government hospitals. Government doctors are busy in private practice, he said that no doctor works for eight hours in a government hospital while they work for 16 to 18 hours in private hospitals. Mangal Pandey, the head of the Bihar health department, is never seen inspecting any of the hospitals in Bihar, due to which the doctors do as they please. When they feel like it, they open clinics and when they feel like it, they open government hospitals, due to which the common people are deprived of government benefits. The Bihar government is only engaged in building big buildings for hospitals, but no concrete steps are taken to ensure that the poor people get proper treatment in those buildings. There is still doubt on whether the common people will have to bear the brunt of this for years or the health system of Bihar will be strengthened. As per the rules, all the different government doctors and employees have to be transferred in three years, but since the time Health Minister Mangal Pandey has taken over the reins of Bihar, only a few have been transferred and some not. Even those who have been transferred, their transfer has stopped. This is the biggest question that when the department transfers, how do they stop? For information, let me tell you that the doctor who is serving in the government hospital has made his own private clinic there, from which he earns a lot of money. And when his transfer is done, If it happens, they adopt all sorts of tricks to stop it, which stops their transfer posting, this game of the health department has been going on for centuries,

Does the private hospital follow the government norms for operation or not, first of all, the infrastructure and facilities of the land, better parking arrangements for ambulances and patients, fire and health license, requirement of NOC from the fire department, along with this, after installing all the beds and equipment in the hospital, a health certificate has to be taken from the local authority, the hospital manager has the responsibility to prove that the hospital will not cause any loss of life and property and for this, NOC has to be obtained from the local city council, employees (doctor, nurse, pharmacist) will be appointed only after having proper certificates,

There is hardly any hospital in Bihar which runs the hospital according to these government rules, but the district health department which gives approval to them does not check these standards, or gives approval without checking by taking a huge amount, this is the big question, do all these hospitals follow these standards in Bihar or other districts of Bihar? The state government or the district administration never pays attention to whether all the private clinics are run as per the norms or not, due to which quack doctors run their private clinics without following the norms of the health department to earn a lot of money, the brunt of which is borne by the public (patients) and the hospital operators charge a huge amount.

According to the government guidelines, there is a provision for transfer of government officials or doctors every three years, but whether all the government officials are able to follow all those guidelines of the Government of India properly or not, no government or department takes any action on this, it is clear that the government and the government departments are with all those officers who adopt an indifferent attitude towards government hospitals and government departments.