Kerala mulls Vigilance cell for Health

Syllabus subtopic: Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector/Services relating to Health, Education, Human Resources.

Prelims and Mains focus: about the cell and its objectives; concerns raised against the move

News: The Kerala government is reportedly mulling over a proposal to set up a vigilance wing in the Health Department.

Objective of setting up the Vigilance cell

Optimally, the vigilance wing will detect private practice by medical education service doctors, crack down on quackery and unearth ethically dubious financial relationships, if any, between State doctors and diagnostic clinics, pharmacies and health care firms in the private sector.

It will also monitor health care advertising and flag false claims aired by health care companies to mass-market pharmaceutical and Ayurveda drugs without a doctor’s prescription as off-the-shelf cures for a wide range of ailments.

The wing will also prosecute self-styled healers who exploit their influence on social media to fuel unhealthy scepticism about the government’s vaccination programmes.

Functioning

The proposed vigilance cell would be under the Home Department and headed by a police officer.
However, in all medico-legal issues, domain inputs will be sought from the medical community itself.

Concerns raised against the move

The proposal appears not to have gone down well with the medical community. Many have objected to the government singling out doctors for intrusive vigilance inspections.

Some felt the government has raked up the old proposal to arm-twist doctors against striking for wage revision.

Some felt that the timing of the move was suspicious as it comes at the fag end of the LDF’s term.

Source: The Hindu

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