Many Indian doctors under pressure to meet revenue targets:

[P.J.]

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Many Indian doctors under pressure to meet revenue targets:


04 September 2015

Many doctors working in India's private hospitals are under pressure to carry out unnecessary tests and procedures to meet revenue targets, says a report published in the journal The BMJ.

"Doctors who face pressure from hospital management to overprescribe surgeries or investigations fear for their livelihood," explained Gautam Mistry, a Kolkata-based cardiologist.

"Also they need to practise for a certain number of years, and by complaining they would be jeopardising their career," he pointed out.

Pune-based gynaecologist Arun Gardre said the main aim of multispeciality hospitals in India is to generate revenue and profits for their investors.

"In the race to earn higher profits, conscience takes a back seat, and doctors are encouraged to indulge in unethical practices," Gardre noted.

However, some doctors, including Devi Shetty, chairman of the Narayana Health Group which runs 32 hospitals for profit in 20 locations in India and abroad, disagree about the ubiquity of financial targets for doctors.

According to Shetty, setting financial goals for a doctor is not a common practice in India,
Narayana's hospitals do not set financial targets for doctors but do set performance targets to raise efficiency, Shetty said.

The Medical Council of India is responsible for institutional regulation of medical services, explains Bangalore-based journalist Meera Kay who wrote the BMJ report.

"But the MCI's reputation is in tatters -- its inability to collect data on alleged medical negligence and general failure to bring prosecutions instill no confidence," said Kay wrote in the report published on Thursday.


http://www.deccanherald.com/content/499077/many-indian-doctors-pressure-meet.html

 

[tks]

If there are no consumer protection laws with teeth and ethical journalists to uncover the practices, it is hard to imagine how long this can go on.

Look at this youtube segment describing a recent HBO show about exploitation of poor woman as baby producing factories (in India).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVxhznxsuOU

 

[krish44]

Our doctors and hospitals are doing a wonderful job with the constraints in india.

The standard of ethics is pretty high .

No sense is making sweeping statements about malpractices based on odd occurance.

a doctor/hospital may err but these are exceptions not the rule.

They have their reputations to think about before indulging in wrong doing.

India has fast become a wonderful place for medical tourism .

lots from neighbouring countries flock here for treatment.

This would not happen , if our doctors/hospitals were bad

 

[CHANDRU1849]

The Management of Medical Profession must be in the hands of Government and NGOs like Missionaries (all Religions) at 80:20 ratio. But in reality it is virtually in the hands of private players, resulting in cut throat competition among various hospitals. It is a distant dream for poor people, middle and lower income groups to get quality treatment in reputed hospitals.

Added to this, more or less it becomes a hereditary profession.

 

[sangom]

Our doctors and hospitals are doing a wonderful job with the constraints in india.

The standard of ethics is pretty high .

No sense is making sweeping statements about malpractices based on odd occurance.

a doctor/hospital may err but these are exceptions not the rule.

They have their reputations to think about before indulging in wrong doing.

India has fast become a wonderful place for medical tourism .

lots from neighbouring countries flock here for treatment.

This would not happen , if our doctors/hospitals were bad

The health care sector itself has been "privatized" as a part of the liberalization process started in the 1990's. Private sector is now owning most hospitals. Their main objective is to maximize profits. Many doctors tell, with slight caution, of course, about the targets given to them and the weekly reviews of each division in the hospital regarding its "profit centre" performance. Added to this, since even medical education is mostly in private colleges, we have doctors who have passed out because they could afford to pay astronomical amounts for the education and they also are too eager to get back the money. Private practice as a physician has become passé, and the multi-specialty hospitals are in great demand.

So, health care in India is a business today like any other, and the wise should approach it knowing this truth.

 

[krish44]

The health care sector itself has been "privatized" as a part of the liberalization process started in the 1990's. Private sector is now owning most hospitals. Their main objective is to maximize profits. Many doctors tell, with slight caution, of course, about the targets given to them and the weekly reviews of each division in the hospital regarding its "profit centre" performance. Added to this, since even medical education is mostly in private colleges, we have doctors who have passed out because they could afford to pay astronomical amounts for the education and they also are too eager to get back the money. Private practice as a physician has become passé, and the multi-specialty hospitals are in great demand.

So, health care in India is a business today like any other, and the wise should approach it knowing this truth.

It is true that due to increased privatisation of education and medical care , money making is becoming an essential part of these sectors.

But who patronises these private entities. Those who claim official reimbursement from employers or really rich. they think it is a prestige to undergo expensive tests

and boast about their colostrol or sugar levels. They undergo various tests mostly unnecessary for real and imaginary ailments.In many cases the patients get treated

for enormous amounts with unwanted diagnostic tests and consumption of dozens of medicines prescribed by doctors.My solution is I never go near doctors for ordinary ailments and ask

the chemist for appropriate relief . the medicines cost a few rupees,Most poor [though I would not fall in this category] do the same. If a simple consultation by a

doctor costs three hundred rupees, how can crores of poor manage in this country?

 

[sangom]

It is true that due to increased privatisation of education and medical care , money making is becoming an essential part of these sectors.

But who patronises these private entities. Those who claim official reimbursement from employers or really rich. they think it is a prestige to undergo expensive tests

and boast about their colostrol or sugar levels. They undergo various tests mostly unnecessary for real and imaginary ailments.In many cases the patients get treated

for enormous amounts with unwanted diagnostic tests and consumption of dozens of medicines prescribed by doctors.My solution is I never go near doctors for ordinary ailments and ask

the chemist for appropriate relief . the medicines cost a few rupees,Most poor [though I would not fall in this category] do the same. If a simple consultation by a

doctor costs three hundred rupees, how can crores of poor manage in this country?

I agree the really poor people avoid going to doctors and hospitals AFAP. But situations do arise in many cases when even the comparatively poor (not the destitutes) are compelled by the circumstances to approach doctors and hospitals for treatment of conditions like blood cancer and other similar potent diseases. They then become real beggars. Government hospitals, even in a comparatively better state like Kerala are in such bad shape, people will not get any treatment there.
What liberalisation has done is to snatch away health care from the lower echelons of the society.

 

[krish44]

Even in delhi, the situation is the same in the health sector.

AAP govt is coming out with an ambitious plan of setting up dispensaries with diagnostic equipment and medicines to treat all [read poor]

they are forcing private hospitals to treat the poor and not divert those beds meant for them[ they received land at subsidised rates with promise of treating some of

the poor] The delhi govt picks up their medicine bills as an enabler.

Most domestic workers and others living in slums , their major issue is health care.

In chennai, the best place for cancer treatment is adyar cancer hospital. The way it is organised for mass treatment of cancer is worth emulating all over the country.

It is affordable for the poor who come from neighbouring states also.