Even as the RA Mashelkar Committee has suggested death penalty to peddlers of spurious drugs recently, Dr H Sudarshan, Vigilance Director of Karnataka Lok Ayukta and president of Vivekananda Foundation (Mysore), on Monday prescribed stringent measures, including death penalty, against erring officers and staff in the healthcare sector and medical education as solution for prevention of corruption in the health system.

Delivering a lecture on the 'Epidemic of Corruption in Health Systems' at the Institute of Health Systems (IHS) in Hyderabad on Monday, Dr Sudarshan said the health sector was corrupt in every aspect and felt that it was the people's representatives and officers who were primarily responsible for rampant corruption in the sector. "Therefore, the panacea against corruption in the health sector is electoral amendment as the people's representatives can discourage a corruption-free health system," he said.

Expressing concern over supply of various spurious drugs in the market which had no effect on the patients, Dr Sudarshan said the people involved in the manufacturing and sale of spurious drugs should be sentenced to death. He regretted that most of the government medical staff and pharmacists were involved in bribery. To do official favours such as operation, issuance of medical certificates, admission of patients in the hospital and so on, they were demanding bribe. Bribes were taken for costly medical tests like MRI and CT scan or even for post-mortem. Even poor patients were not spared and sometimes bribe was demanded in the operation theatre before the commencement of the operation.

The Vigilance Director suggested that suspension of the staff involving in corruption and compulsory awareness on medicines and the medical system could help tackle corruption which was rampant in the sector. He said the government should facilitate value-added education in schools as a long-term measure against corruption in the health sector.

Dr Sudarshan said the investigations made by the Karnataka Lok Ayukta in that state found that the health minister as well as the medical staff, irrespective of their rank in the government hospitals, had indulged in bribery.

He said the doctors working in government hospitals were practicing privately in almost all states, including AP, and suggested that the government should cancel the licences of such doctors to discourage the illegal practice.

Dr Sudarshan called upon the people of the state to be vigilant against corrupt elements and said that the pro-active role of the Lok Ayukta in Karnataka had helped unearth many tricks adopted by the pharmaceutical industry to bypass the drug price control mechanism. The highest case of corruption took place by collusion and that could not be prevented unless the people become aware of the magnitude of the problem.

IHS chairman Dr P Hrishikesh said a survey on patient satisfaction conducted by the IHS found that corruption in government hospitals as one of the main causes of dissatisfaction among patients.