Non-practicing allowance tests doctors8217; patience

CHANDIGARH, Oct 3: The government doctors have long been lured by the the rewards of private practice. Though there is non-practicing all...

CHANDIGARH, Oct 3: The government doctors have long been lured by the the rewards of private practice. Though there is non-practicing allowance to keep doctors with government hospitals and dispensaries, the private doctors8217; earnings have increased phenomenally, making private practice hard to resist. Moreover, the knowledge that some government doctors, one way or another, quot;get away withquot; practising privately tempts many others. Some may not give in, but they labour with an increasing sense of resentment that the government does not value their work.

It all boils down to a demand for higher non-practicing allowance, or if that is not possible, permission for government doctors to practice privately too. Top doctors in the city to whom Chandigarh Newsline spoke feel it8217;s time the government brought about some changes in policies.

Dr B. N. S. Walia, former director, Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, said: quot;The private health sector has grown tremendously in the past few years attracting talented doctors by offering handsome salaries. The salaries in the government sector are too low to hold good doctors or attract good talent to government hospitals. In addition, the non-practicing allowance being given to the doctors is too little.quot;

However, if private practice is allowed without any check it will be against the patients8217; interest, opines Dr Walia. quot;A form of controlled practice, where some discipline and checks are exerted so that undue advantage of patients is not taken should be brought about,quot; he added.

A senior doctor in a government hospital remarked: quot;The rule forbidding government doctors to practice privately should be done away with. There might be complications in the beginning, but with passage of time, the system will yield a more liberalised environment.quot;

Another doctor in a government set-up felt: quot;Either there should be a system where there is an agreement between the hospital and the doctors regarding profit-sharing, or the non-practising allowance should be acceptable to the doctors. However, if there is a policy of permitting private practice, the doctors may stop taking interest in hospital work, or divert patients from hospitals to their own clinics.quot;

Most doctors in the private practice felt that if government doctors were allowed to practice privately, competition in the health sector would increase manifold. However, the general public warned that changing the rule would give rise to unfair practices on the part of government doctors to whom patients now go for treatment at nominal charges.

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Rakesh Singh, an industrialist, said: quot;Ideally, such a step should lead to higher motivation among government doctors to work better, but it will also give them a license to fleece people more than they are doing now.quot;