BJP experts plan and create health policies for Centre

Kochi: The BJP think-tank on the social media that intends to help Prime Minister Narendra Modi create the policies of his Government in consultation with its over one lakh members, has come out with interesting findings on the status of the healthcare sector in the country.

Rajendra Pratap Gupta, who authored BJP's election manifesto and leads the campaign on the social network site ‘Local Circles’, with the theme ‘Transform India with Narendra Modi’, has also asked the members to identify the root causes of these ills affecting the health sector.

The most interesting findings are that “patients are kept in the ICU for getting higher room rents” by hospitals and “If patients have mediclaim, they are charged extra compared to patients without insurance cover”. The BJP Communication Cell which controls the campaign plans a white paper on the issue which will be submitted to the Health Minister and the PMO.

It has also identified that a nexus has developed between hospitals/doctors and path labs. Some of the other important findings are that hospitals prescribe costly medicines which are never given but only billed, hospitals charge for very costly tests which are either not necessary or not done and false reports are generated by computerized forgery, many surgeries are done by trainees under a senior doctor’s name, no standardized rates are displayed in hospitals for the services offered, doctors don’t prescribe generic medicines, lots of cases of fake medicines are being reported, patients are ill-treated in Government hospitals and entry and exit formalities are very poor in Government hospitals.

In several cases, prescribed medicines are available only in stores nearby. Reimbursement of medical bills by insurance companies is another big issue identified while patients are prescribed unnecessary tests to get kickbacks.