Health Minister suffering from 'reformatitis' : Brinda Karat

New Delhi, May 9 (UNI) Is Union Health Minister Ambumani Ramadoss suffering from any 'diseases'? Yes, if CPM leader Brinda Karat is to be believed.

Initiating a discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the 'Working of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,' the CPM leader strongly criticised the government's health policies and accused it of ''impaired vision and wrong priorities'' and ''virtual dismantling of the public health sector''.

''Is the Minister suffering from any diseases? Yes...Reformitis and Privatisationitis,'' she said while referring to the government's inaction in checking the virtual takeover of the health sector by private enterprise.

''Everybody is affected by the disease--from the Finance Minsitry to the Planning Commission...It impairs the vision of the government,'' she said in her hour-long speech.

She said the government had no mechanism to monitor the working of private hospitals which took land on concessional rates on the condition of reserving 30 per cent beds for poor but later backed out of the commitment.

The private hospitals, instead, charged exhorbitant prices leaving majority of the people in debt.

''The slogan of health is wealth has now become ill health is wealth,'' she remarked.

UNI