Pics: Sphoorty Ullal
Daijiworld Media Network—Mangalore (RS/CN)
 
Mangalore, Sep 26: Opposing the collection of fees from patients in Wenlock Government Hospital, the Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) and Janavadi Mahila Sanghatane (JMS) protested in front of the hospital and took to task the district medical officer.   
 
Addressing protesters, Muneer Katipalla said, “Government hospital is for the poor patients but this hospital has turned into a private hospital by collecting money for treatment and medicine. The government’s plan of commercializing the hospital has caused poor patients to suffer. The staff in the hospital tortures the patients and their relatives for documents”, he said.   
 

“Introduction of the Public Private Participation (PPP) model in the hospital is the main reason for such a problem”, he said adding that it is an anti-poor ruling as many patients have suffered due to their inability to pay the money.
 
“Collection of money in government hospitals puts them on par with private hospitals. The commercialization of a government hospital should not be done as there is need for development, but commercialization such as collection of fees from poor people should not be done”, said Katipalla.    
 
He also stated that this is the beginning of the protest against this issue and also an alarm bell. He warned that if such rules continued, the organization would resort to strong protests.
 
Protesters gave a memorandum to district medical officer Prabhudeva.