Activists against plan to bring govt hospitals under new Act

The state government is all set to bring public sector hospitals under the revised Karnataka Medical Establishments Act.

The decision, however, has not gone down too well with several activists and volunteers. The government has now decided to include government hospitals under the same Act which was hitherto known as the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act. This would mean a change in the nomenclature of the Act. The previous Act laid down certain conditions on private hospitals like compulsory registration and display of price list.

This was among the primary announcements made at a joint press meet addressed by K R Ramesh Kumar, minister for health and family welfare, and retired Supreme Court judge, Justice Vikramjit Sen, on Friday.

The state government had constituted an expert committee with representatives from public and private sectors with Justice Sen as its chairman to amend the KPME Act.

The committee has recommended that government hospitals also be monitored by the same Act. Akhila Vasan, member, Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali, said that it was unfair to weigh both public and private hospitals by the same measure as they function differently.

Members of other voluntary organisations were of the opinion that such a measure would weaken the public healthcare system. “If we expect government hospitals to work on the same lines as that of private hospitals, then their performance is bound to be affected. This would drive more people to the private sector and hence lead to a closure of government hospitals,” said another activist on condition of anonymity.

Among the other issues that were discussed are the need to bring all institutions that provide healthcare services in all streams of medical practice under the Act and provide a single window for registration.

The committee also recommended that a Grievance Redressal Body be set up and state and district authorities be created to look into issues. The need for having a patient charter to look into patients’ rights and responsibilities were also discussed.

The Department of Health and Family Welfare, which has a copy of the recommendation, will put up the amended Act before the Cabinet for discussion and approval. The government will table the Bill in the next legislature session, Kumar said.

‘Favours private sector’

Organisations including the Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali, Karnataka Jana Shakti, Mahila Munnade, Swaraj Sanghatane, Swaraj Abhiyan, Sangama and Safai Karmachari Kavalu Samiti in a statement said: “The fact that final deliberations were held with only representatives of the private health sector exclusively illustrates how vested interests are allowed to dictate terms to the government. Therefore, it is no surprise that the drafting committee has decided to drop the very word “private” from the Act thereby bringing in the government health system also under the ambit of the said Act.

“This move by the drafting committee is not to rein in and regulate the private health sector or ‘protect the citizens’ interests’ and ‘protect citizens’ rights’ as the government claims to, but to bolster the private sector and further weaken the government health system. Requests to include representatives of various people’s movements, workers’ unions, farmers’ movements, women’s groups, sexual minority communities, PLHIV forums went unheeded.”