Blaming the Private Sector

[Guest guest]

Dear Dr. Saha,

Your blaming the Private Sector is just like the kettle calling

the pot black.

How many of you work with the WHO are sincere in your work? I know

many who are there by pulls and pushes as said in "

Principles " .

Indian Bureaucrats do not patronise anything in the Private

sector. Till recently the Private sector was not included in the

Polio immunisation scheme. Recently they were also included. The

Health Services in every State believes that they are the

authority and the private sector is not taken into confidence.

How many State Health Departments have a data of the Private

Practitioners in their States. No one is having any data.

The bureaucrats are smart in cooking up data and hoodwink all.

What encouragements the State Govts are giving to the Qualified

Private Practitioners for setting up clinics in rural areas and

for being there 365 days a year. Absolutely NIL. On the other

hand there are 27 Acts and 47 Rules and Notifications to harass

them, unfortunately if they are qualified ones!

If you can convince the WHO and give a helping hand to the

Private Qualified Doctors we will have a better healthcare system

in our country.

However, Indian bureaucracy will be the greatest hurdles to

overcome, even if the WHO agrees.

Dr. K. Kishore Kumar,

Kayamkulam

E-mail: <kumarkishore@...>

[Guest guest]

Dear Moderator,

This is in reference to the comments made by Dr. Kishore Kumar regarding my

comments:

I am really sorry if my comments hurt the sensibilites of private pratitioners

in any way. Let me assure you that it was not my intention to " blame " any sector

or the other. Having said that, let me point out that Dr. Kumar's comment does

not in any way add to the issue that we were discussing here: namely the status

of infectious diseases database in the country and the lack of any reliable data

on that count. If I remember correctly, what I pointed out were the facts that:

1.. There exists in India a govt. inititated Health Management Information

System (the HMIS or MIS) and an important component of that is collection of

data on infectious diseases.

2.. Although this system is in place, it was not functioning at its best -

rather it does not function at all.

3.. This is primarily due to the implementation (or non-implementation!) of the

system at ALL levels right from the govt. sector at the village/ward level up to

the national level.

4.. Therefore all sectors of the healthcare system have some responsibility for

this state of affairs.

In fact I also mentioned in my comment that the govt. sector does not involve

other sectors (like the non-registered practitioners) in this data collection

and that it should find some way to involve all sectors to have quality and

realiable data on infectious diseases.

Finally I would like to point out that Dr. Kumar's tirade regarding doctors of

the WHO (who are doing excellent work in India in face of awesome odds) were

uncalled for and, if I may add, in exceedingly poor taste.

I do hope I have managed to get my points across this time.

Thank you,

With regards,

Dr. Amitrajit Saha MD

Advisor,

DURBAR

12/5 Nilmoni Mitra Street, Kolkata 700006

Ph +91 33 5437451 / 5437560

Fax +91 33 5437777

Ph (H) +91 33 4651133

E-mail: amitrajitsaha@... & amitrajitsaha@...