BENGALURU: Civil society organisations and public health movement like Karnataka Janarogya Chaluvali want aspiring MLAs to strengthen public health system and regulate private hospitals by incorporating certain health sector demands in their manifesto and deliver them. They have worked out a health manifesto that will be submitted to all political parties. They want the health department's budget, that is currently Rs 4,000 crore, to be tripled to Rs12,000 crore. Other demands include making medicines free right from the sub-centre level to the super specialty hospital level, prohibiting doctors to write prescriptions to buy medicines from outside.
Akhila Vasan, convener of Karnataka Janarogya Chaluvali, said, "In the context of human resources, cancel contractual arrangements and ensure equal pay for equal work across all cadres." They also wanted government to ensure compulsory rural placement for two years for all medical graduates of both private and government medical colleges.
"The funds allocated under Arogya Karnataka should be 80% for government hospitals and 20% for private hospitals," she added.
Price regulation clause in the Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Act (KPMEA) has to be brought back, the health manifesto suggests. "Several health right violations are criminal in nature and not just medical negligence. There should be provision to invoke the IPC in the Act for certain kind of violations," said Vasan.
Key demands of Civil Society Forum for Karnataka Assembly Elections 2018:
-- All moves to hand over institutions – primary to tertiary – to private and corporate agencies including NGOs should be stopped immediately
-- All government hospitals/Primary Health Centres /Community Health Centres to have separate children’s sections where all services are free
-- Salaries of staff in government, charitable and corporate should be comparable
-- Focus on primary healthcare rather than expensive tertiary healthcare.
-- Medical establishments should strictly enforce regulations in over-prescription of drugs and pharmacies should be forbidden to provide such drugs over the counter.