GURGAON, November 23: Doctors attending the State Annual Conference of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) expressed grave concern over what it called the exploitation of service doctors.National Secretary of the IMA, Dr Prem Aggarwal felt that laws against the medical profession would only create suspicion among doctors. Dr Aggarwal, spoke about the challenges confronting the medical community and highlighted the failure of the public health system and the menace of quackery.He said the private sector was now providing 80 per cent of the health care with 85 per cent of this being curative health care. Dr Aggarwal stressed the need to focus on preventive health care.The newly-appointed president of the IMA for Haryana, Dr Subhash Khanna explained why medical treatment was becoming increasingly unaffordable. He said land prices were prohibitive, adding, the government was not coming out with subsidies. Doctors have to pay more Octroi, he said. And there was no income tax exemption even for hospitals operating in backward areas.Dr Khanna urged the people to keep a health budget and urged the government to make life-saving drugs cheaper. While outlining the programme for the coming year, Dr Khanna said that public-health awareness and quackery eradication would be on top of their agenda.
