Even as the Government said it has conveyed to the States that it would foot the bill for hiring best doctors in rural areas, a demand was made on Friday in the lok Sabha by a BJP MP to set up a regulator to oversee the functioning of private nursing homes and healthcare facilities and curb profiteering and overpricing of medical procedures and services.
Raising the issue in the lok Sabha, BJP's Meenakshi lekhi said the private healthcare sector was virtually unregulated and the time has come to make them accountable and do business under a specific framework.
Citing examples of alleged malpractices, she said though the government has reduced price of stents, the hospitals have increased the rates for the procedure to insert them so as to compensate for their losses.
A stent is a device placed in an artery through surgery after removal of blockages in it to ensure proper blood flow.
“The doctors in the Government hospitals are overworked and underpaid. The doctors in private hospitals do their job like business. We need to address it,” she said, raising the issue during Zero Hour.
She said there was a need for setting up of a body which can regulate medical practices and fix rates for various procedures.
"The telecom sector has TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). The medical sector also needs a regulator," she said.
Currently, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) examines drug pricing in India.
Answering supplementary questions, Health Minister JP Nadda informed the house that the Centre has told states to hire specialist doctors in various fields for rural areas with good pay packets, the salary bills for whom would be footed by it.
Nadda said the states are free to hire experts such as gynaecologists for rural health facilities on a good sal-ary and the Centre will pay it.
Seeking to ensure larger intake of doctors, 5,000 seats have been added in medical colleges, he said.
Reports have it that there was a mere 19 per cent availability of specialist doctors in the community health centres (CHCs), especially those in the rural areas, across the country.