Close gap between public, private healthcare'

Bengaluru: In a bid to regulate treatment costs and mitigate the problems faced by common people in private hospitals, the state government has constituted a committee under former Chief Justice Vikramjith Sen to make recommendations to this end.

Speaking to reporters here on Thursday, Health and Family Welfare Minister Mr Ramesh Kumar said that the committee will submit its report in eight weeks and the government will then take a call on the issue.

Private hospitals play a major role in providing health services but the costs are prohibitively high. For example, fixing a heart stent costs Rs 65000 in Jayadeva hospital while a private hospital charges over Rs 2.5 lakh. Such steep disparities are not acceptable, he said. The committee will comprise legal experts, medical experts, representatives from private hospitals as well as from the general public.

Government hospitals are facing a severe shortage of specialists, thought the government is ready to pay over Rs 1 lakh as salary to them. Besides,the government has offered Rs 25,000 extra to specialists ready to work in backward areas but they are not keen on joining government service. Of 3248 sanctioned posts, over 1183 posts are vacant and even an attempt by KPSC to recruit specialists has proved futile with only 45 specialists reporting for duty.

To overcome this problem, the department has decided to start GP Diploma course in all 11 government medical colleges from next year. The seats will be given to only government doctors, who are working in government hospitals and they would be posted in the vacancies.