Indian Doctors for Ethical Practice (IDEP)

- are a network of ‘Doctors for De-commercialised, Ethical & Rational Health Care’

We are speaking on behalf of the large number of conscientious, rational doctors in India with a sense of anguish and distress regarding the state of medical practice in India today.

We are worried about:

Deteriorating ethical standards in private medical practice, and stark commercialisation of this once a noble profession(Rising incidences of malpractices, irrational investigations, unnecessary procedures and surgeries, kickbacks).Adversarial relationship between patients and doctors leading to insecurity among doctors.

We want to bring back:

The healthy and harmonious relationship between doctors and patients. This can only be achieved by

• Checking corporatization of health care.

• Regulation and rationalisation of fee structure in private medical colleges.

• Regulation of pharma industry, equipment industry and consumables (Stents etc).

• Solving the practical problems of rational doctors – like high handed implementation of PCPNDT in which many honest doctors have suffered.

• Capping the amount of compensation in medico legal cases.

• Honouring patients’ rights, transparency regarding charges and for readiness to give enough time to patients and answer their queries.

• Following standard treatment guidelines prepared by organisations in India with due consideration for local constraints.

• Bringing in Clinical establishment act that would protect honest and ethical doctors and would not bring in corrupt Baburaj.

• Reconstitution of Medical Council of India on democratic lines, and bringing Corporate Hospitals under the control of MCI.

We have a dream - to bring Universal Health Care in India like that in UK/ Canada/ Thailand.

Article by Dr Arun Gadre, MD (OBGY) Pune, Maharashtra and Dr Sanjay Nagral, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology, Jaslok Hospital, Mumbai, Maharashtra