No ban on private practice till Medical Officers level: Health Min

Days after the government formed a committee to implement ban on private practice by the doctors, the health and medical education minister said that the ban does not cover doctors till the level of Medical Officers.
Bali Bhagat, the minister for health and medical education, made it clear that the ban is imposed for private practice by the Heads of the Departments in Government Medical colleges of Srinagar and Jammu.
“No ban on private practice has been imposed on doctors till the level of Medical Officers,” Bhagat said
“The HoDs of GMC Srinagar and Jammu have been asked to concentrate on their departments and stop the private practice,” he said.
Last week, the government formed a committee to implement its order of ban on the private practice.
“The Health and Medical Education Department has constituted a committee to implement a government order regarding ban on private practice by all HOD’s in Government Medical Colleges, Government Dental Colleges and the Associated Hospitals of the state in letter and spirit,” the order said.
The committee will be headed by the Principal Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Dr. Pawan Kotwal has been appointed as Chairman while as Director Health Services, Dr Saleem-ur-Rehman, Director, AIDs Control Society, J&K Dr Mushtaq and Additional Secretary H&ME Department Naseer Ahmad have been appointed as members of the committee.
For years, private practice has been a contentious issue between doctors and government , with chief ministers of the state time and again asking the doctors to abhor from private practice.
Late chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed in 2015 had asked Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS) doctors to shun private practice.
In 2011, former chief minister Omar Abdullah had also warned the SKIMS doctors to shun the private practice. (KNS)