Srinagar, July 28: The Director of the Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Dr Showkat Zargar on Thursday said the cases of two doctors carrying on with the private practice despite a ban have been reported to the Government.
 Interacting with the media persons on the sidelines of a function held to commemorate World Hepatitis day, Dr Zargar said that he has told his fellow doctors to abjure private practice as they were drawing NPA.
 “Yes private practice is going on and I called everyone after assuming charge. I told them we should not do it further. And we have referred two such cases to government and there is a law to take action. It is the job of government to curb this practice,” he said.
 Criticizing the drug policy of the institute, he said that there was lot of red tape-ism involved in it and measures were afoot to change this system.
 “The drug policy here is not patient friendly. There is lot of red tape-ism involved. We want to change it as distributors used to cheat us earlier by quoting rates themselves. Now we demand price listing from original manufacturers so that earlier practice can be changed,” he said while admitting shortage of drugs in the hospital.
 Replying to a query, the eminent gastroenterologist stated that development process was hit due to prevailing turmoil during past 20-years.   “We are not yet good tertiary care hospital but now we are coming up,” he said.
 Elaborating on the developmental aspect, he said that the number of critical beds is being enhanced from twelve to fifty.
 Unveiling the future plans, Dr Zargar stated that a state of art trauma centre would be coming up to cater patients under one roof.
 “Within one year patients will be able to download their medical investigation reports through internet. It will benefit patients and save their precious time,” he said.
 Reacting to a media reports, he said that allegations against him and his son were baseless. “My son never studied at Acharaya Medical College Jammu nor did he spend donation on his degree as was reported by a media outlet.  He was given national scholarship for his meritorious education graph. He did his MBBS from Aligarh Muslim University and topped the list over there,” he said.
 On the Hepatitis B and C disease, he informed that ‘B’ could be treated by popularizing vaccine among the newly born babies. However, there is no vaccine available for the treatment of Hepatitis C and is similar to HIV.
 Earlier Dr Zargar highlighted the importance of hepatitis prevention and role of civil society among the students drawn from various schools. He said that 80 per cent infectious diseases could be controlled by simple measures.
 The organizing secretary Dr GN Yatoo highlighted the importance of the day. On the occasion house keeping employees were vaccinated free of cost.
 Dr Gul Javaid and Dr Jaswinder Singh educated students about the disease.
 Renowned hepatologist Dr Ajit Sood focused on recent advancements in Hepatitis C management.
 The function was attended by senior faculty SKIMS soura/Bemina, and Government Medical College Srinagar.

Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Jul 2011 21:30:00 Makkah time
Lastupdate on : Thu, 28 Jul 2011 18:30:00 GMT
Lastupdate on : Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:00 IST