Expense Account, Mint
On 1 March,The Indian Expressnewspaper reported that a government scheme for expecting mothers saw almost one in two Caesarean sections over a nine-month period in one district in Madhya Pradesh. The World Health Organization norm for C-sections is about 10-15 Caesarean deliveries per 100 births. The private clinics accredited with the government got four times more money for a Caesarean surgery. It doesn’t take a genius to connect the dots. This practice, we know anecdotally, is not restricted to one area of Madhya Pradesh.
A study led by S.K. Bhasin and published in theIndian Journal of Community Medicine in 2007 confirmed the correlation of private hospitals and a high C-section figure. The study found 34% C-section rates in east Delhi, with almost 92% of these being reported from private clinics and hospitals.
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