New Delhi |HL
Amid the parliament session when the government is passing various bills in both Lok Sabha and then upper house also cleared them one-by-one. The disputed National Medical Commission Bill facing protest by the medical fraternity on its passage in the Lok Sabha this week.
Doctors and medical students will be observing a 24-hour strike, which started on August 1st. The Indian Medical Association (IMA), the country’s apex body representing the medical fraternity with around three lakh members, announced the pan-India withdrawal of non-essential services yesterday, calling for demonstrations and hunger strikes at its local branches and urging medical students to boycott classes. However, Emergency, Trauma, ICU and related services will remain unaffected.
According to the IMA the NMC Bill, which seeks to replace the controversial Indian Medical Council (IMC), is “draconian” as well as anti-people, anti-poor, anti-students and anti-democratic. On its website, the IMA alleged that “Section 32 of the NMC Bill provides for licensing of 3.5 lakh unqualified non-medical persons to practise modern medicine”. According to it, the term ‘Community Health Provider’ has been vaguely defined to allow anyone connected with modern medicine to get registered in NMC and is licensed to practise modern medicine. “This means persons without a medical background are becoming eligible to practise modern medicine and prescribe independently,” said IMA, adding that the law “legalises quackery” and hence can never be accepted by the medical fraternity of the country.
“If it is tabled in its current form in the Rajya Sabha without any amendments the medical fraternity across the country to resort the extreme measures. The AIIMS RDA, Federation of Resident Doctors Association and United RDA all jointly said ” We will withdraw from essential and non-essential services from the hospitals for an indefinite period.
According to Dr.Sumedh President FORDA, unless the government incorporates certain amendments in the interest of people, the bill will lead to deterioration of medical education and degradation of healthcare services. The AIIMS RDA president Amarinder Singh Malhi and General Secretary Dr.Rajiv Ranjan have hope that necessary amendments will be made in the bill before being passed in Rajya Sabha,”
The IMA, however, has made it clear that it rejects the NMC Bill 2019 “in toto”, or as a whole. It alleges that other provisions in the bill, such as the decision to introduce a common final year MBBS examination and regulation of fees by the NMC for 50 per cent seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities, will increase the cost of medical education and affect the career of generations of medical students.
The IMA has solicited the support of the public and reportedly appealed to people to not visit the hospitals except for emergencies during the strike.
Agencies
