No mercy to errant health clinics

Healthcare is a basic facility which needs to be ensured for all the citizens by the government. Constitution of the country makes its incumbent upon the government to ensure healthcare for every citizen.
Every year, an allocation is made in the national budget for the health sector. However, the amount remains far too small to meet the requirement. That is why healthcare facilities have mushroomed across the country to fulfill the unmet demand.
The health sector officials get paid by taxpayers' money, and one of their main responsibilities is not only to monitor the quality of the public healthcare services but also that of the private sector health service providers.
Recent drives against illegal health care facilities have made it clear that health administration has utterly failed to monitor activities of private health clinics like hospitals, clinics and diagnostic centres.
According to media reports, private sector meets 60 per cent healthcare service demand of the country.
There are 15,233 authorised healthcare facilities across the country.
During the ongoing drives against illegal healthcare service providers, the DGHS has detected 1,027 unlicensed hospitals and clinics across the country and that seems to be not the final number as the drives have yet to be completed.
The DGHS people found raw fish and chickens stored alongside medicines in the refrigerators of some private health facilities. Some clinics were fined because they employed fake doctors to run their operations.
Many of these clinics raised the number of their beds without permission from the health directorate, and most of them lacked necessary equipment.
Naturally, questions are being asked as to how such a large number of illegal healthcare facilities have been doing businesses openly.
Indifference on the part of the officials concerned resulted in not only loss of valuable lives but also an abnormal rise in medical expenses.
Another significant issue is that the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) started the drive in line with a court order in connection with the death of a boy while undergoing circumcision at a leading hospital in the city. Without such an order coming from the higher court, the DGHS would never have bothered to initiate any action.
Allegations over unlawful practices by unauthorised healthcare providers are not new. These include providing fake diagnostic reports, prescribing unnecessary tests, realising exorbitant amount of money from patients and wrong treatment.
These illegal healthcare centres operate violating rules and with inadequate and unskilled manpower. Unfortunately, the instances of action against them were very rare.
The health administration should focus on quality of healthcare provided by the private sector institutions in addition to licensing.
At the same time, the officials who are allegedly involved in this nexus, should be taken to task.
DGHS should decentralise the monitoring and operational activities of healthcare for better surveillance and accountability of its officials.
Regular monitoring of illegal hospitals should be made mandatory.
Moreover, healthcare service provides like hospitals and clinics should be asked to mention their licence numbers with every test report and medical bill.
Definitely, given the limited resources of the public sector, private sector should be allowed to operate in the healthcare sector but there must be regulations so that illegal and unethical practices can be checked.
Otherwise, due to reckless profit-making by a section of private sector players may create a disastrous situation.

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