Doctors claim that the true villian is the State Legislature and Bureaucracy that only extended portions of the Indian Drug Act to the State. Yet another example of how the State uses the Article 370 to pass laws with loopholes that breed corruption
Doctors Hit Back at Crack-Down on Private Practice
Mukhtar Ahmed (Kashmir Images)
Srinagar: Accusing the government of resorting to unfair and unethical means in its recent crackdown on doctors indulging in private practice of doctors, Doctors Association of Kashmir (DAK) Saturday termed the crack-down as a an attempt to grab limelight.
“If government is seriously pursuing this cause, then it should enforce the ban in Government Medical College too?” DAK president, Dr. Nasir-ul-Hassan said. “All doctors are bound to work under prescribed, which permits private practice before 10 am and after 4 pm, and we assure the government that doctors from our fraternity shall abide by it,” president said.
Addressing media people at a local hotel here, the DAK president confessed that his organization too was opposed to the private practice by doctors. “But the way government has gone about in its crack-down – the way a policeman was addressing a respected doctor win very derogatory manner, is unethical and totally condemnable.”
Expressing concern over the lack of proper medical facilities and infrastructure in far-flung areas of Kashmir, Dr. Hassan blamed the government for neglecting the peripheral areas, as a result of which, he said, patients are referred to Srinagar for the slightest of ailments.
“The reason for the huge gap in medical facilities in city and rural areas is the bureaucracy as it a huge stumbling block in our initiative of reaching out to every nook and corner of Kashmir,” Dr. Hassan alleged while tangentially training his criticism at the bureaucracy.
It is pertinent to recall that the recent crackdown against the doctors indulging in private practice during hospital hours, was initiated at the behest of Divisional Commissioner Kashmir.
DAK president also questioned the selection of current Director of Health Services, Kashmir, to the post. He said, as per rules, the Director of Health department should be from within this department only and not from Medical Education department.
“Government had assured in the State Legislature in 2003 that no doctor from Medical Education shall be brought to head the Health department. However, despite this, out of the last five directors four were from Medical Education department, including the present director,” the DAK president alleged.
He said it is “humiliating for the entire health fraternity as few people have been given illegal access through backdoor entry”.
Earlier, Dr. Mir Mushtaq, DAK spokesperson alleged that the development funds meant for hospitals are being misused and a huge chunk is paid as salaries to the “illegally appointed staff”.
Explaining reasons for the incompletion of the Drug Act in the Valley, Mir regretted that despite the act being formulated some 30 years ago in mainland India, Kashmir is yet to see it in its full light owing to the bureaucratic and lackadaisical approach of the government.
“This lack of interest in implementing the Act on part of the government and its concerned agencies is indeed a big incentive and patronization for the business of fake drugs in Kashmir,” Mir lamented.