Even as the Lok Sabha sent the contentious National Health Commission Bill that seeks to overhaul the medical education regulatory structure to the standing committee, healthcare services at multiple hospitals across the country were partially disrupted when doctors went on a strike in protest against it.
Though emergency and critical care departments largely functioned normally, doctors at several hospitals wore black badges at work.
Though emergency and critical care departments largely functioned normally, doctors at several hospitals wore black badges at work. The situation eased later in the day when the 12-hour nationwide stir called by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) from 6 am was called off after the Centre agreed to refer the proposed legislation to a parliamentary standing committee.
The National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, which was tabled in Parliament on Friday, seeks to replace the Medical Council of India(MCI) and also proposes allowing practitioners of alternative medicines, such as homoeopathy and ayurveda practice allopathy after completing a “bridge course”. “We called off our strike as the Bill has been referred to a Parliamentary Standing Committee which has members from diverse fields and there should now be a fruitful discussion,” said IMA’s K K Aggarwal, who was spearheading the stir. Terming the Bill as “anti-people and anti-patient”, the IMA has stated that the bill purported to eradicate corruption is “designed to open the floodgates of corruption.”
Earlier Union Health Minister J P Nadda said in Parliament that talks were on with the IMA to clear their doubts. “Talks are on. We have heard them (the doctors) and also presented our views,” he said. “This (Bill) is beneficial to the medical profession,” Nadda said in the Rajya Sabha after the members raised the issue of strike by the doctors across the country.
