From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: Chief Justice of India N C ramana has expressed concern over the rise of quackery in India.
“Where there is room for myths, there is room for quackery. Quackery is the biggest disease affecting India. Owing to the financial and time constraints, a huge majority of Indian population approaches these untrained and uncertified doctors. Lack of awareness and knowledge, misplaced belief, and sheer inaccessibility has massive ramifications on the health of the country, particularly the rural and under-privileged India,” he said while calling for a legislation to save people from falling prey to fraudulent practices in the name of treatment.
He said the people are falling for the quacks because of very high cost of the treatment in the hospitals as growing unchcked corporatisation of healthcare has mde profit making more important than service to the society.
The CJI was speaking at the inaugural National Academy of Medical Sciences (NAMS, Delhi) public oration on “Law and Medicine.” He said he would speak about the certain aspects of the medical system in the country after his retirement on Friday.
he emphasised that the commercialisation of healthcare needs to be checked.
“Private hospitals are being opened at an exponential rate. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there is a glaring need for balance. We are seeing hospitals being run like companies, where profit making is more important than service to society. Due to this, hospitals and doctors alike are desensitized towards the plight of patients. They are just numbers for them. This trend has also spread monopoly and is deepening the inequities in access to health care.”
This meant that the poor reach doctors at a very late stage, he highlighted.
“Exorbitant medical fees coupled with excessive barriers has made it almost impossible for the poor to get decent healthcare. It is primarily the cost of healthcare that is forcing people to suppress their healthcare needs and well-being. The heart-breaking fact is that the crucial preventive stage is often lost when people suppress their health needs. They only approach the doctors when it is unmanageable and has crossed a certain threshold.”
He also expressed concern over attacks on the doctors during the Covid-19 pandemic as unfortunate. “Doctors express their scientific understanding day in and day out through their medical practice. There are very few professions that exist in a constant state of flux in the way the medical profession does. In fact, the medical profession is most reflective of technological and the scientific developments. It is sensitive to every advancement in technology and is constantly striving to improve the care and services it offers,” he said.
CJI Ramana also touched upon the significance of safeguarding the health of citizens as stressed by the Constitution makers.
“Our courts also have played significant role in realizing these goals and shaping the health care policies of our country. The Directive Principles have placed emphasis on the minutest details of health, nutrition, working conditions and welfare. In addition to the Directive Principles, the Constitution, in 11th and 12th schedules, places an obligation to provide safe drinking water, sanitation and adequate healthcare upon the local bodies.”
“A good lawyer, like a good doctor, must always work earnestly towards imbibing and accumulating greater knowledge. The possibilities for growth in both fields are seemingly endless. Both medicine and law are the oldest professions in the world. They arise from basic necessities of dignified human existence. People place their faith in lawyers and doctors alike, trusting that they will act in best interests of those who approach them,” CJI Ramana added.
