CPI Demands Action Against 'Medical Mafia', Calls for Ethical Healthcare Reforms

• The Communist Party of India (CPI) has called for urgent measures to curb exploitative and unethical practices in the healthcare sector.
• CPI leader K Narayana stated that healthcare is a basic social obligation, not a profit-driven enterprise, and condemned the 'medical mafia'.
• Demands include stringent regulation, transparent pricing, action against kickbacks, patient rights protection, and strengthened public healthcare.
• Narayana urged regulatory authorities like the National Medical Commission (NMC) to enforce ethical standards and act against violators.
• Separately, an economic evaluation in the Indian Journal of Medical Research found shorter, six-month all-oral regimens for MDR/RR-TB are cost-effective and improve health outcomes.