A protest call given by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to its affiliate doctors for boycotting outpatient services, received mixed reaction from the healthcare personnel in the city.
The IMA issued the call for protest between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m on Tuesday. Early in the day, junior doctors and students in government hospitals as well as medical colleges, held sit-in protests against the proposed Bill to institute a National Medical Commission in place of the Medical Council of India. IMA office-bearers of the State chapter claimed that the protest was successful given that the Parliament referred the bill to the standing committee. “The protest was complete across the State. The Bill is anti-poor and will see encroachment of allopathy by practitioners of other systems of medicine,” said Narasinga Reddy, President of IMA’s Telangana Chapter. The IMA has raised opposition to the Bill on several grounds alleging that the draft law seeks to pave way for increased privatisation of healthcare and medical education, besides watering down standards in such institutions. The IMA has also been wary of increased government control. The Tuesday’s protest call saw mixed response from the city’s doctors. While some hospitals issued instructions to their doctors to not register outpatients, it was business as usual at other hospitals.