The online forum aims to fight rampant medical malpractices and corruption in the private sector.

A website, named privatehospitalswatch.org, ie being developed by Sathi and the Centre for Health and Social Justice. The website, aims to serve as a platform for all activists and campaigners fighting medical malpractices in the private sector to put up their findings in the public domain.

Dr Abhay Shukla, national convener of the Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a network of non-profit public health NGOs said that our website will be one way to make this behemoth accountable, by putting documents related to all cases of medical negligence and malpractices in the public domain so that people can see what is going on.

The consumer forum has a limited mandate of looking only at cases of negligence, and over the years we have seen that State Medical Councils have completely failed to address people’s complaints and provide relief said Dr Abhijit More, co-convener of the non-profit Jan Arogya Abhiyan, Maharashtra.

Price regulation for medical devices and treatment has still not been included in the law said Akhila Vasan, an activist from the Karnataka Janaarogya Chaluvali. [A Johari www.scroll.in]