Persons who went to the corporate and private hospitals, and clinics and dispensaries were put to inconvenience on Tuesday when they were turned away from 6 a.m. till evening in the State.
Most of the doctors working in the private institutions responded to the call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to register their protest against introduction of the National Medical Commission Bill.
Nakkala Road, which is the hub for hospitals, clinics, diagnostic labs, and scanning centres in the city, wore a deserted look.
IMA Vijayawada unit secretary Rasik Sanghvi said that along with regular doctors, junior doctors and post-graduate medicos did not attend to out-patients.
Along with clinics and dispensaries, diagnostic laboratories, scanning and physiotherapy centres downed shutters, Dr. Sanghvi said.
He said doctors in hospitals all over the State did not attend to out-patients, but attended to all emergency cases.
The IMA members took out a rally and even organised a discussion on the Bill that had been introduced in Parliament.
Former Andhra Pradesh Medical Council chairman V. Ramprasad said the Bill was in the public domain for over a year.
Suggestions and amendments were sought, but none of the recommendations made by the IMA had been considered, Dr. Ramprasad said.
In isolated cases, private hospitals attended to out-patients because of a communication gap.
“We could not cancel appointments given to patients at short notice,” a doctor said. Small hospitals and clinics opened their doors to the out-patients after noon, but the corporate hospitals turned away all of them.
Towards the evening, many doctors attended to the out-patients when news broke out that the agitation had been called off.
