Opposing the controversial National Medical Commission Bill tabled in Parliament, junior doctors in state-run hospitals of Telangana — Osmania Hospital, Nizam’s Institute of Medical Science and Gandhi Hospital--boycotted their elective services on Wednesday, affecting the patients. Besides boycotting, the junior doctors registered their protest by burning copies of the proposed NMC.
The protesting doctors said that they would stand in solidarity with the Indian Medical Association and partake in the nationwide strike against the bill on July 29.
“We support the protest against the bill. On July 29, the IMA will launch a nationwide agitation,” said Dr Sanjiv Reddy, general secretary of Indian Medical Association, Hyderabad chapter, according to New Indian Express.
The doctors have been opposing the Bill claiming that it would reduce the accountability of private medical colleges, and that the fee revision would affect students from marginalised communities from pursuing medical education. They also claim that the Bill allows students from physiotherapy and nursing to take ‘bridge courses’ for six months, train them in rural health care centres, and treat them on par with a doctor. The Bill also attempts to introduce Homeopathic and AYUSH practitioners into the mainstream, which is one of the major contentions.
“Students will be allowed to give the National Exit Test only once. This means students will not get a chance to better their scores according to PG cut-off eligibility criteria. This is very unfair and with the kind of workload that a final year MBBS student has, including another important exam is not going to help them,” Dr Shashikant, organising secretary, TJUDA (The Telangana Junior Doctors Association) told the Times of India.
The protest however affected patients at the hospital. “I have been waiting for my CT scan and MRI scan for the past two hours. Despite repeated queries, nobody here has informed me anything,” Rajira Rani, a patient was quoted as saying by TOI.