HC notice to Govt against private practice by doctors of State-run hospitals

Cuttack: The Orissa High Court has issued notice to state government on a PIL, seeking its intervention against private practice by government doctors as it affected quality of healthcare in state-run healthcare facilities.

The two-judge bench of Chief Justice Chakradhar Sharan Singh and Justice Sibo Sankar Mishra listed the matter after four weeks while hearing the petitioner, Cuttack-based social activist Narayan Chandra Jena on Friday.

Jena sought the court’s direction to the government for forming a committee to check doctors working in state-run hospitals from engaging in private practice. He also added that the government should forbid private practice and provide a non-practising allowance to them.

The secretary of health & family welfare department and director of health services have been named as parties to the case.

Jena had first filed the PIL on October 19, 2023. However, it was dismissed for ‘non-prosecution’ by a HC bench on November 7 that year. The same bench accepted his petition for restoration of the PIL on January 16 this year.