After two weeks of protest against the Right to Health Bill, private doctors in Rajasthan on Tuesday called off their agitation following an agreement reached with the State government on the applicability of the legislation. The Private Hospitals & Nursing Homes Association announced that all hospitals across the State will start functioning from Wednesday morning.
The representatives of agitating doctors and Principal Secretary (Medical Education) T. Ravikanth arrived at a consensus that the private hospitals which have not availed of concessions or taken land and building at subsidised rates from the State government will be kept out of the purview of the Act. The two sides signed a memorandum of understanding comprising eight points after negotiations.
Also read: Explained | Rajasthan’s Right to Health Bill
The Right to Health Bill, passed in the State Assembly on March 21, gives every resident of Rajasthan the right to emergency treatment care without prepayment of requisite fee or charges to any health institution. Though Rajasthan became the first State to legislate the right to health, private hospitals were apprehensive of the government’s interference in their functioning after the enforcement of the law.
While the talks with the government officers were continuing, the agitating medicos, accompanied by their family members and para-medical staff, took out a massive rally for the second time on the roads of Jaipur on Tuesday morning. A similar rally was earlier organised on March 27 in a show of strength.
Private Hospitals & Nursing Homes Society’s secretary Vijay Kapoor said the agreement had been reached “without any pressure” and the main demands of the doctors had been accepted, while the government would enforce the right with its own resources. The delegation which went for talks included the representatives of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and the United Private Clinics and Hospitals of Rajasthan (UPCHAR).
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said Rajasthan had become the first State with the right to health after the end of the doctors’ strike. “I hope that the doctor-patient relationship will remain cordial in future as well. The doctor fraternity has shown a spirit of service and generosity, which will write a new chapter in social security,” Mr. Gehlot said.
Private hospitals and nursing homes across the State were closed for the last two weeks because of the doctors’ strike. This led to an increased pressure on the government hospitals, where long queues of patients were witnessed. The resident doctors in government hospitals also extended support to their peers in the private sector and boycotted the work.
According to the agreement, private multispecialty hospitals having less than 50 beds will be kept out of the ambit of the law in the first phase of its implementation. The Act will not be applicable to the private hospitals which have not obtained any concession from the government or received any rebate in the allotment of land and building.
The categories covered by the statute will include the hospitals operated by private medical colleges, hospitals running on public-private partnership (PPP) mode, hospitals established after taking land from the government free of cost or on subsidised rates and the hospitals run by trusts which are funded by the government in the form of land and building.
Regularisation of hospitals constructed at various places in the State will be considered on the “Kota model”, which gives relaxation in the rules to the institutions functioning on residential premises.
Besides, a single window system for licences and other approvals will be launched for the hospitals and the renewal of the fire no objection certificate (NOC) will be done every five years. Any further change in the rules, to be framed under the law, will be made after consultation with two representatives of the IMA, as per the agreement.
