Kerala has decided to ban private practice by doctors working in government-run medical,dental and nursing colleges in the state. However,to prevent financial loss,the state has decided to increase the pay package of doctors. The decision,to come into effect next week,will serve as a long-pending respite to the states medical sector,adversely affected by private practice of medical college doctors. Doctors in medical colleges went in for private practice after skipping duty,forcing senior medicos to run the show in hospitals,particularly in the afternoons. Ban on doctors private practice has been under consideration since 1996,but was not implemented due to opposition by some public sector doctors. Apart from hiking the pay of all cadres,special non-practice and patient care allowances would also be doled out to the doctors. As per the revised pay package,a professor will get a monthly salary of Rs 1.11 lakh,three times higher than the present pay. An estimate shows that the revision would load an additional burden of Rs 100 crore on the state exchequer annually. The revision would have retrospective effect from January 2006. The decision has not gone down well with doctors,with the Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association threatening to strike. CPI (M) central committee member and Health Minister P K Sreemathi warned doctors of action if they failed to toe the government line. She said pay wards in the medical college would function from Friday.
