Right to Health Bill: Private doctors call off strike in Rajasthan
The agreement between the government and doctors was reached after two rounds of talks on Tuesday morning
Private doctors in Rajasthan on Tuesday called off their 17-day long strike after the state government agreed to keep unaided private hospitals out of the ambit of the Right to Health Bill.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot expressed his satisfaction on the outcome of the talks.
He said that no person should suffer due to lack of treatment, with this thought the state government has brought ‘Right to Health’ (RTH).
“It is a matter of happiness that the state government has agreed on the proposal placed before the doctors regarding the Right to Health Bill. With this, Rajasthan will become the first state in the country to implement RTH,” he said.
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Gehlot said that all the people of Rajasthan cooperated with the state government in favour of this bill and have gone ahead and welcomed this pro-people bill. Now, it is a pleasant sign that doctors have also agreed on this important bill, he added.
However, a small section of doctors refused to end the agitation, saying their demands had not been met.
Dr Sanjeev Gupta, IMA media incharge said a majority of private hospitals supported the agreement and about 2,000 private hospitals would reopen in the state.
“The doctors and patients were both facing difficulty. Doctors have shut their hospitals for 17 days. Their earnings came to a halt. Patients too are running from pillar to post. We cannot make everyone happy,” he said.
Dr Gupta said that some large private hospitals that have got any kind of aid from the government in the form of subsidised land or building are opposing the agreement because they will be covered under RTH.
The agreement between the government and doctors was reached after two rounds of talks on Tuesday morning.
According to the agreement, all private hospitals established without taking any facilities from the government in the form of land and building at subsidised rate will be excluded from the purview of the RTH act, said Dr Sunil Chugh, president, Indian Medical Association (IMA), Rajasthan.
The government had already exempted those private multi-specialty hospitals which have less than 50 beds from the RTH bill.
The hospitals to be covered under RTH bill are – private medical college hospitals, hospitals established on PPP mode, hospitals established after taking land from government free of cost or on subsidised rate, hospitals run by trusts.
Dr Chugh said the officials assured the government will consider their demand that regularisation of hospitals constructed in Rajasthan be done on the Kota model.
He said in Kota the government has regularised hospitals that were made on narrow roads in the old city areas. The IMA wants the same for hospitals in other cities.
The doctors also asked for withdrawal of police cases registered against doctors during the agitation to which the government agreed, said Chugh.
Among other demands that the government agreed is to bring a single widow system for licenses and other approvals for hospitals, fire NOC renewal will be done every five years instead of annually and any further changes in rules will be done after consultation with two representatives of the IMA.
“We want the government to clearly identify what it means by designated healthcare centres that are mentioned in the bill. The government must give it to us in writing, so that it is not changed later,” he said.
The doctors took out their rally against the RTH bill as planned on Tuesday.
Thousands of doctors from across Rajasthan participated in the rally.
A delegation of doctors met medical education secretary T Ravikant at around 4am on Tuesday.
Dr Ratan Sharda, former president of IMA, Rajasthan, said the talks had been positive and there was a possibility of the strike being called off.
However, there was some confusion as Dr Vijay Kapoor, secretary of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Homes Society, alleged he was not part of any talks.
Dr Kapoor was then invited for talks with chief secretary Usha Sharma at her residence.
After talks, the IMA state working committee held a meeting in the afternoon to formally take a decision on calling off the strike.
The push for the dialogue came from chief minister Gehlot after the doctors were insistent that they would only talk to the CM and not to the health secretary Dr Prithviraj as they did not trust him.
Last week, Gehlot nominated state Congress chief Govind Singh Dotasara to talk to the doctors.
The two sides held talks on Friday after which Dotasara said a team of senior bureaucrats will be formed to look into the matter.
Talks were again held on Monday where a team of six doctors met medical education secretary T Ravikant and other officials.
Dr Ratan Sharda said the doctors apprised the officials about their objections to the Right to Health bill and their demands. The officials sought time to examine the objections.
The doctors’ strike had crippled health services in the state. While private hospitals were shut, government doctors and residents had also extended support to the private doctors which caused great inconvenience to patients.
Other associations such as the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynaecological Societies of India, the Jaipur Obstetrics and Gynaecological Society, the Indian Radiology and Imaging Association and the Rajasthan Chemist Association are also supporting the doctors.
Residents at SMS hospital in Jaipur, the state’s largest hospital, and six other government medical colleges had joined the strike.
Hundreds of operations were put off, patients needing radiotherapy and dialysis were facing problems and OPD patients had to wait for hours in line to get treatment.
The government hospitals were managing to treat patients with services of medical college faculty, senior residents and medical officers.
However, the resident doctors returned to work from Monday morning after Jaipur Association of Resident Doctors held talks with the principal of the SMS medical college.
The Rajasthan Medical Council has also sought details and Rajasthan Medical Council registration numbers of all residents who were boycotting work in support of the private doctors.
