Private hospital doctors in Gurgaon strike work over law
Around 450 doctors did not attend to patients in OPDs in protest against a law governing operations at pvt hospitals
Doctors in private hospitals did not attend to patients in the out patients department (OPD) on Friday in protest against the proposed implementation of the Centre’s Clinical Establishment Act by the Haryana government, covering private hospitals and nursing homes in the state.
At present, there is no law governing operations at private health care facilities in the state.
As many as 450 private doctors sat on a one-day strike at the Huda Gymkhana Club, refusing to attend to patients at OPDs at any of the private hospitals.
The protest had a crippling impact on medical services, as a large number of patients crowding OPDs at private hospitals were left unattended. Many patients said they did not expect operations at private hospitals to be disrupted this way.
The city is home to eight private hospitals and 185 clinics and also has 800 medical professionals who are members of the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
“There have been discussions on how the proposed Clinical Establishment Act, which is to be implemented by Haryana government, could be modified to address our concerns. However, the state has turned a deaf ear to our demand to amend the proposed legislation by the central government,” MK Singh, member IMA, Gurgaon, and Haryana, said.
Singh said that they will not allow the state to introduce the central Act, as it aims at wiping out small-scale medial establishments.
“Today, we referred many patients to government hospitals, as the OPDs in private hospitals were closed for the day. We had already decided that we will not admit any patient from 6am until midnight,” Singh said.
The IMA members said they were forced to take this step to oppose the state government’s “autocratic” decision.
The agitated members blamed chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar for refusing to incorporate the proposed amendments to the Haryana Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act that had been agreed to earlier.
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According to the IMA members, the central Act was passed in the year 2010, but none of the states has notified the law as yet due to certain “impractical provisions”. The Act is presently in force in Delhi and other union territories.
They said the medical fraternity is not willing to accept a provision in the Act stipulating the fee for prescription and treatment.
“How can we treat the trauma patients for free? The government wants us to take care of patients by taking away our financial support. This isn’t feasible,” Ajay Arora, another IMA member, said.
The association further said that they will be forced to launch an agitation against the government if their demands were not considered and met.