Doctors boycott duties, protest against NMC Bill

Hyderabad: In response to the call given by Indian Medical Association (IMA), several doctors on Wednesday in the various government and private hospitals in the city boycotted their duties and staged protest condemning the National Medical Bill (NMC Bill) recently passed by the Central government in Parliament.

Doctors staged protest before all the prominent hospitals such as Gandhi Hospital, Osmania Medical College, NIMS, Niloufer Hospital and government ENT hospital.

At Niloufer, doctors boycotted their duties in the morning and staged protest in front of the hospital. They raised slogans demanding the Central government to withdraw the Bill as people from poorer sections would be affected by the Bill.

Doctors working in Government ENT hospital, Koti, staged protest before the hospital from 9 am to 11 am and all the medical services remained closed. They expressed concern over the Bill and said that it would destroy the medical field. It would do severe injustice to poor students of medicine, they opined. ENT specialist Dr Sudarshan Reddy and other doctors participated in the protest.

At Osmania Medical College, junior doctors and medical students staged protest before the college. Junior doctors demanded that the Central government cancel the Bill as it would create problems for poor students of medicine.

They questioned the Central government why another test is required for medical students who have completed five and half years of the course after being selected through NEET. The students would lose their precious time they spent in doing the medicine course, they alleged.

Lalu Prasad, state president of Telangana Government Doctors' Association, termed the Bill as anti-people. He said that the Bill does great injustice to students from poor and downtrodden sections.

Prasad said that the Bill encourages corruption as it allows permission to medical colleges if the owner has 20 acres of land and allows the colleges to sell 50 per cent of seats. The Bill also states that RMP doctors who work in rural areas can be given medicine certificates after receiving training for three years, he said. He expressed concerns that the Bill would destroy the medical field in India.

Dr Ravi Shankar, secretary of IMA Hyderabad, alleged that the Bill was enacted to favour corporate hospitals and rich classes. He expressed his concerns that the medical field would lose its autonomy and would be controlled by political masters. He said that they would continue their fight against the Central government until the Bill was cancelled.