The Karnataka government is now working to ensure that ethical medical service is maintained across the continuum of care in the state. The objective is for the betterment of healthcare across private and government hospitals in the state.
The government has also gone to release a manual on ‘Medical Ethics and Professionalism’ by the Federation of Healthcare Associations - Karnataka (FHA-K). The manual was unveiled at the day-long National Health Summit, 2017 on ‘Healthcare Ethics and Governance’ held recently in association with the FHA-K, PHANA and IMA, Karnataka. It involved the representatives of government policy makers, private and government hospitals, legal experts, NGOs, and practicing doctors.
FHA-K is a think-tank, comprising various healthcare associations to assist and recommend various policies for betterment of healthcare both to policymakers and private organisations.
“The prime focus of private sector and the government medical sector should cohesively be beneficial to the community”, said chief minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, adding that all the medical stakeholders need to debate, discuss and to improve the healthcare scenario in our state. There is a need to debate, deliberate and recommend various policies required for the betterment of healthcare in the state and the country.
Everyone should work towards serving the community ethically and compassionately keeping the interests of the common man in mind. Healthy individuals lead to healthy community, in turn contributing to a healthier nation. Private sector is a major partner in providing healthcare to the people and the government always supports the good works. Karnataka government appreciates PHANA, FHA-K and IMA to have taken this initiative in bringing in all the stakeholders and started the step of getting the collective views of various people into consideration, added Siddaramaiah.
According to Karnataka minister for medical education Dr. Sharan Prakash Patil, although the facilities provided in government hospitals are of good quality and there are no financial constraints, the quality of administration needs improvement due to various rules and regulations. So, doctors are not in a position to be administrators. However, the private sector hospitals are in a position to give excellent quality facilities and administration, and the doctors are great at administration. All hospitals should focus on providing ethical and selfless service.
Releasing the manual on ‘Medical Ethics and Professionalism’, the Karnataka principal secretary, health & family welfare, Dr Shalini Rajneesh said that there should be no place apprehension in on the government policies of private healthcare.
The Government aims to bring the Happiness Index of Karnataka up by several notches and we cannot do it without the support of private healthcare providers. All private and government hospitals should be a part of this venture. The manual will serve as general guidelines to the entire medical fraternity, said Dr. Rajneesh.
Dr. C Jayanna, Convenor of National Health Summit 2017, said that the health summit will henceforth be organized annually and move towards being a major policy recommending body.