The Indian Medical Association, Coimbatore branch, on Wednesday staged a satyagraha on the IMA premises seeking a time-bound implementation of its demands by the Central Government.
L.P. Thangavelu, Member of the Medical Council of India, along with office-bearers of the IMA and more than 200 doctors participated in the satyagraha, following which a memorandum was submitted to the District Collector.
Threat
The memorandum pointed out that they are “concerned about the threat perceived by the profession.” They said that they were supportive of suitable amendments in the existing Indian Medical Council Act but that they were against scrapping it totally and making it “a non-autonomous body.” They also said that the Act takes away the voting right of every doctor in India to elect their medical council, allows private medical colleges to charge at free will and allows for the induction of non-medical persons in the highest regulator of the medical profession.
They also demanded that “single-doctor clinics” be exempted from the Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act, 2013, which governs hospitals today. The memorandum wasalso addressed to the President and Prime Minister.
Students’ protest
Meanwhile, over 100 students of the Coimbatore Medical College staged a protest against a planned “exit test,” to test the capabilities of freshly graduated doctors. The students also demanded more seats to be allotted for students in Tamil Nadu from the all-India quota.
