Doctors protest against NMC Bill in Tirupati

Tirupati: Protesting against the passage of the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill in the Lok Sabha, doctors and medical students have closed their clinics on Wednesday and attended only emergency cases.

About 1,000 doctors of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Tirupati Branch and medical students have taken part in the protest. They took out a rally from Ruia Hospital to SV Medical College and staged a demonstration and criticised the NMC saying that the controversial bill was 'draconian' and against the interests of people, poor and students.

The doctors said that they have given number of representations to the Central government against the proposed bill during the last two years which were turned down. They recalled that the Centre was saying that as the Medical Council of India (MCI) is corrupted, the new NMC will replace it. But is there any guarantee that NMC will function without corruption, they asked.

It was proposed to allow anyone connected with modern medicine to get registered in NMC and practice through which those do not having any medical background may become eligible to practice and prescribe medicines. It legalises quackery, they criticised. The new bill also proposed a National Exit Test (NEXT) for final year MBBS students which was being opposed by the medical fraternity. The NMC will regulate the fees for 50 per cent of seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities, which will increase the cost of medical education and poor and middle class students will be deprived of it, they criticised.

IMA State President Dr D Srihari Rao, Tirupati branch President Dr G Parthasarathi Reddy, Dr Yugandhar, Dr C Subramanyam and others spoke on the occasion. The government doctors, however, have participated in the strike for one hour and joined duties later wearing black badges.