Pvt Health Centres
Enact effective act to ensure service
Say speakers
The draft Private Health Service Act, 2010 must ensure accountability and quality service at private health care centres for the significant number of patients now seeking treatment there, said speakers at a view-exchange meeting yesterday.
They also said the private health service sector lacks accountability and quality service due to absence of an effective law. So, a comprehensive law is a must to take care of issues like registration of the private hospitals and clinics and monitoring and protecting patients' rights, they added.
Health Rights Movement National Committee organised the meeting at National Press Club in the city and placed some recommendations to incorporate into the draft act.
“Whenever we go to public hospitals, we face sheer negligence. If we go to private health care centres, we are exhausted financially,” said Prof Rashid E Mahbub, president of the committee.
The draft act includes compulsory registering of doctors to receive licence, compulsory emergency service facilities, regular vigilance at the service centres from the Directorate General of Health Services and sealing the service charge, he said.
The monitoring and management should still be regulated through public-private partnership, said the speakers, adding that the act must ensure quality service protocol at the clinics.
Quoting the Health Bulletin 2010, the speakers highlighted that 36 percent of the health expenditure went to public health sector. The remaining went to private health sector in 1996-97. But it has reduced to 26 percent in the public health sector, experiencing a rise in the private health sector in 2005-06, they added.
So, the law must ensure local level Medical Audit Committee to control private health sector, they said.
At the same time the act should have provision for medical audit to those hospitals, preventing unscientific treatment, ensuring punishment to doctors for wrong treatment and a place for patients to file their complaints, they said.
Nitai Kanti Das, member secretary of Health Rights Movement National Committee, Dr Dulal Chandra Poddar, director of Kumudini Hospital, Dr Lelin Chowdhury of Health and Hope Hospital and Khodadad Ahmed, president of Unani and Ayurvedic Board, also spoke among others.
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