Srinagar, Sep 29 : Kashmir valley seems to have become a money minting machine for the outside doctors. Owing to the lack of proper healthcare policy there is no check about the credentials of the medicos who come to Kashmir from various parts of India and loot poor people on a pretext of “better treatment”.
Dozens of doctors especially from Chandigarh, Amritsar, Delhi, could be seen visiting Kashmir every month and issue advertisements in print and Electronic media appealing people for special treatments.
These doctors here see the patients in various private nursing homes and other clinics and later advise these patients to visit their (doctors) outside clinics.
Sources alleged that these doctors and their agents mentally prepare the patients to visit their outside nursing homes and everyone in this chain gets their due share.
“The nexus is going on between doctors who are looting patients. Authorities should examine the ground situation and act upon accordingly,” official sources told KNS.
Sources also said that patients who visit such doctors are mostly being “cheated”.
Sources revealed that these doctors after visiting valley first ask the patients to undergo the tests in respective clinics and nursing homes here at higher rates and later they are mentally prepared to visit their (doctors) clinics in outside states like Delhi and Chandigarh.
In one such case, a patient (name withheld) had to face a worst experience after he had seen an advertisement in a newspaper that read a senior-most “orthopedician from Delhi” would be available in Srinagar on a particular date.
“I visited the place along with my wife. The said doctor that was mentioned in the advertisement was not available there instead a group of some five doctors were seeing the patients. These doctors then mentally prepare the patients to visit their respective clinics and hospital outside the State for the better treatment and they fetch heavy amount money from the innocent patients,” he said.
A senior doctor told KNS that most of these outside doctors who visit the valley on short term private practices are surgeons. “We rarely see physicians coming.”
He said majority of these doctors have done their degrees in foreign countries like Russia, Bangladesh and China. “They also have smart percentage of marks. There is no check whether these doctors have qualified the Medical Council of India (MCI) examinations or not,” said a senior doctor at SKIMS, wishing not to be named.
Repeated attempts to contact MoS Health Asiya Naqash proved futile.
Talking to KNS, Director Health Services Kashmir Dr Saleem-u-Rehman said they check the credentials of doctors who visit the valley. “But at times we also find that some addresses don’t exist on the ground. Like an advertisement in any paper that a doctor from outside will visit here. And when we go to the place we don’t find any such clinic. People should remain cautious and inform us as well,” he said. (KNS)