Punjab government cracks down on health camps after botched procedures

Health camps to provide free procedures -- like cataract surgeries and sterilizations of women -- are often held in India where the public healthcare system is overburdened and healthcare be costly for those with low incomes.

Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister Surjit Kumar Jayani said these camps may not be held without prior approval by the state's civil surgeons and unless a sufficient number of medical professionals are present.

The ruling came on the heels of an incident in which 18 elderly people lost their vision after a health camp procedure that wasn't approved by the state's health authorities. The surgery was performed on about 50 people in November in the Amritsar district.

"It's highly criminal to hold a camp and operate at a place that's not an authorized center," the district's civil surgeon, Dr. Rajiv Bhalla, told the Wall Street Journal.

"The infection was caused either by unhygienic conditions at the hospital or unsterilized equipment," he added.

The trend of questionable practices at health camps isn't just restricted to India's Punjab state. In Odisha state, Dr. Mahesh Chandra Rout is under investigation by health officials for allegedly using bicycle pumps instead of a carbon dioxode insufflator on 56 women undergoing a sterilization procedure.

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