Health activists, lawyers, doctors, and organizations have announced plans to launch a website that will function as a watchdog scrutinizing private hospitals in India. This plan is made with an attempt to fight rampant malpractices violating patients’ rights in the private health sector.
The name of the website “privatehospitalswatch.org” was announced in the two-day South Asia-level workshop on patients’ rights by non-profit organizations Sathi and the Centre for Health and Social Justice organized in Mumbai. 60 health activists get all together in the workshop working for patients’ rights in 11 states in India as well in Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Kenya.
The website is not yet complete but it will be going to serve as a platform for all activists and campaigners fighting medical malpractices in the private sector to put up their findings in the public domain.
Dr. Abhay Shukla, who is a national convener of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a network of non-profit public health NGOs was present in the workshop and said that Indian private hospitals have been operating in a shadow zone – it has grown with the help of public subsidies for medical education, hospital land, and import duties, but it consciously evades public accountability.
The website will be going to serve as a channel to aware the public with all cases of medical negligence and malpractices in the public domain so that people can see what is going on.
The website will be one way to make this behemoth accountable.
An official launch date of the website is not yet announced, health activists and organizations who attended the workshop are working to prepare reports of the cases and campaigns that will be going to publish on the website.
