IMA panel to look into overcharging
It's a conflict issue between patients, doctors.
Hyderabad: A nine-member committee has been formed by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to look into the issue of overcharging by hospitals and diagnostic centres and delay in providing immediate medical care to accident victims.
The committee was formed following complaints from people who were upset with these issues.
The issue of in-house pharmacy has become a major bone of contention between patients and hospitals as there are medicines available under the national list of essential medicines (NLEM) and people seek the benefit of the same.
Dr K. K. Aggarwal, president of the IMA, said, “In our monthly letters, we urge doctors to prescribe drugs mentioned in the NLEM as far as possible. This is to ensure that people get maximum benefits. But there have been constraints and while some hospitals are following instruction, others don’t.”
There are also other issues like standardisation of prices charges by private hospitals and nursing homes for consumables, diagnostic services and doctors’ consultation fees.
The IMA has been pointing out the need to eradicate cuts and commissions.
A senior doctor, on condition of anonymity, added, “With corporate hospitals coming up, doctors are given monthly targets. This is a wrong practice. This has put them under pressure to perform more surgeries.”