The Madras High Court Bench dismissed a public interest litigation petition that sought a direction to the State government and Tamil Nadu Medical Council to ban private practice of government doctors in all cadres. The plea was made on the ground that doctors could concentrate more on treating patients at government hospitals.

The plea was rejected on the ground that the petitioner hadn’t mentioned any specific instance of a government doctor involved in private practice of medicine and where any legal bar preventing government doctors from practicing in private hospitals and nursing homes existed.

The PIL petition was filed in 2012 on the ground that it’s not appropriate to permit government doctors alone to take up private practice. All other government servants including the policemen were regulated by a code of conduct that prohibited engaging in private business for profit.

The petition was filed by V Aarthi of North Gandhi Gramam near Karur distict. She stated that a government doctor was hacked to death in her clinic in Thoothukudi in 2012 by the husband of a pregnant woman who died. She claimed that the reason for the attack on the doctor was her failure to concentrate on treating the patient due to overwork.

According to the petitioner, government doctors should render their full service to the patients who visit the government hospitals. However, they tend to focus on private practice and so it should be banned, she said.

Image credits: wikipedia.org

   Send article as PDF