Main description:

For every story of optimism about the growth of medical tourism to India, there are multiple others about medical neglect. Scratch the surface and you find a thick layer of corruption in this life-sustaining sector.

This hard-hitting volume shows a mirror to the society and, more specifically, to those associated with the health sector--on how healers, in many cases, are shifting shape to becoming predators. In the essays by contributors from within and outside the medical fraternity, we see the many faces, the many facets of corruption--from exorbitant billing by corporate hospitals to the non-merit-based selection in medical colleges to the questionable motives playing strong in the area of organ
transplantation.

But Healers or Predators? is not only about the illness affecting the sector. It also offers solutions, and some stories of hope. The Foreword by Amartya Sen is an added bonus.

Contents:

Foreword by Amartya Sen
Introduction

Section I: Background
1. The Structural Basis of Corruption in Healthcare in India
Ritu Priya and Prachinkumar Ghodajkar
2. Socio-Logic of Corruption
Shiv Vishvanathan
3. The Commodification of India's Healthcare Services: Public Interest, Policy and Costly Choices
Kaveri Gill
4. Globalization and Corruption in the Health Sector
Amit Sengupta

Section II: Corruption in Practice
5. The Role of the Medical Council of India
Sunil K. Pandya
6. Malpractice in Medical Education
Avinash Supe and Soumendra Saho
7. Corruption in Everyday Medical Practice
M.K. Mani
8. Hospital Practices and Healthcare Corruption
Sumit Ray
9. Ethical Issues in Organ Transplantation
Vinay Kumaran
10. The Public Sector and Corruption in Health Services
S.V. Nadkarni
11. The Unholy Nexus: Pharmaceutical Companies-Medical Profession-Regulatory Authorities
S. Srinivasan
12. People in Small Places Don't Face Small Problems
Yogesh Jain
13. Healthcare Corruption and Traditional Medicine in India
Kavita Narayan
14. Healthcare Corruption: A Consumer's View
Rema Nagarajan
15. Corruption in Medical Research-Clinical Trials, Research Misconduct, Journals, and Their Interplay
Sanjay Pai
16. Corruption in Healthcare: A Technology Perspective
M.S. Valiathan

Section III: Morals, Politics, Legal Issues, and Consequences
17. Degradation of Our Spiritual, Ethical, and Moral Heritage: A Personal Perspective
V.I. Mathan
18. The Moral Pathology of Healthcare Corruption
Abhijit Chowdhury
19. The Consequences of Corruption in Healthcare
George Thomas
20. Judicial and Legislative Responses to Healthcare Corruption
Arghya Sengupta and Dhvani Mehta

Section IV: We Are Not Alone
21. Global Medical Corruption: It is Time for Individuals to Act Where Institutions have Failed
David Berger
22. Bangladesh: Great Mysteries In Global Health Masked In Corruption
Mohd Khairul Islam
23. Business Corruption of Personalities: The Case of Sri Lanka
Harendra de Silva
24. Corruption in the Healthcare System of Pakistan
Shershah Syed

Section V: Governance and Healthcare Corruption
25. Patient-Centric Healthcare: Through Institutional Regulation
Meeta and Rajiv Lochan
26. Regulating Healthcare Establishments: The Case of the Clinical Establishment Act, 2010
Sunil Nandraj
27. Can Digital Technology Help Curb Healthcare Corruption?
Surajit Nundy
28. Healthcare Corruption: Responses from People's Health Movements
Abhay Shukla
29. Evidence-Based Interventions for Healthcare Corruption
Rakhal Gaitonde

Section VI: Personal Views
30. My Battle with Medical Corruption
Kunal Saha
31. What Should We Do?
Farokh Erach Udwadia
32. Means and Ends
Ratna Magotra

Section VII: Major Scandals
33. The Justice Lentin Commission of Enquiry: A Case Study---Laying Bare Malaise and Corruption in the Health System
Rupa Chinai
34. Vyapam
Sandhya Srinivasan

Section VIII: Beacons of Hope
35. Developing a Health and Social Care System for Homeless People with Mental Illness: Key Messages from The Banyan Experience in Tamil Nadu, India
Lakshmi Narasimhan, Nisha Vinayak, Kishore Kumar, and Vandana Gopikumar
36. Christian Medical College, Vellore
Sunil Chandy
37. Challenges to Holding a Candle against Corruption
G.D. Ravindran
38. Changing the Paradigm: The Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences, Sevagram
S.P. Kalantri
39. Experience with Health Worker-based Medical Programmes
Binayak Sen
40. In All Honesty
Amrita Patel
41. Palliative Care Shows the Way to True Health
M.G. Rajagopal

Conclusion
About the Editors and Contributors