Website for healthcare whistleblowers

Medileaks, a website that will allow stakeholders to register complaints, point out irregularities in healthcare and generate information about malpractices in the medical care sector, was launched in the Capital on Wednesday.

The website, inspired by Wikileaks, will allow whistleblowers to post information anonymously. It will be vetted by a team of volunteers before being shared on the portal. Explaining the model, the website’s founders Sunil Nandraj and Alam Singh said, it would be a platform for patients, consumers and industry insiders (health care providers, hospitals, laboratory services, pharmaceutical, medical equipment, insurance companies) to share incidents and experiences connected with various kinds of malpractices and irrational and unethical practices in India’s health system.

The founders asserted that the aim was to offer useful information to patients, care-givers, journalists, researchers and policy-makers to help them make informed choices. However, concerns are already being raised about how it would address the issue of medical negligence.

Former Health Secretary, Keshav Desiraju, who is now the Secretary, Department of Consumer Affairs, said it was easy to address complaints about lapses or laxities in hospitals. But dealing with complaints regarding treatment by doctors was a different ballgame. “A sizeable chunk of complaints in the consumer courts is about medical negligence. What kind of a response would be possible on a complaint about doctors,” he wondered.

Dr. Samiran Nundy, chairman, Department of Surgical Gastroenterology and Organ Transplantation, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, was sceptical about the efficacy of the website in dealing with issues of corruption in health care. “It is very easy to say it is the doctor’s fault. For whatever you do with the best intent, there will be 70 per cent people who will be happy, 10 per cent will say it is okay and 20 per cent will be unhappy.”

He was also against allowing anonymity to complainants.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/website-for-healthcare-whistleblowers/article6615569.ece