Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 3: Raising concern over unnecessary cesarean deliveries that have reached epidemic proportions in Kashmir, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) today said that majority of these surgeries are done for financial gains.
Terming this practice as unethical, the DAK president, Dr Nisar-ul-Hassan said the doctors are motivated by money to perform needless surgical deliveries. “There is a well-oiled nexus between private hospitals and doctors that is pushing patients into cesareans they don’t need. A perception has been generated that cesareans are better than normal deliveries,” he said.
The DAK president said that in order to convince perfectly healthy women to opt for elective cesarean section before their due date, doctors tell them about so called benefits of the surgery. “First time mothers are especially targeted because if a woman has a C-section once, she would need surgeries for subsequent pregnancies.
“Doctors are paid much more money for a surgical procedure than a normal delivery and hospitals rake in money for patients’ longer stay and other related services. Birth has become a lucrative business and private hospitals earn up to Rs 50,000 on a cesarean package. A cesarean is less time consuming and more profitable,” he said.
The DAK president added that a doctor would do 12 cesareans in the time it takes to attend one normal delivery. “In government hospitals also, surgical births have increased dramatically. To learn the technique, postgraduate students perform cesareans when they are not required,” Dr Nisar said.
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