Cong flays TRS for supporting National Medical Commission Bill

Hyderabad: Telangana Congress on Thursday strongly objected to the National Medical Commission Bill presented by the BJP Government in the Parliament and described it as unconstitutional.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan, Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) Doctors' Cell Vice-Chairman K Satyanarayana said that the Bill would deprive poor patients of free treatment in public hospitals. Demanding that the Bill be dropped, he said instead of adopting modern medicine, the Central Government was trying to impose some obsolete systems of medicine based on the advice of a Yoga Guru. He said that National Medical Commission would distance poor from both treatment and medical education. He said provisions have been made in the bill to give 50% of medical seats to private colleges. This will badly hurt the poor students who want to pursue medical education and it would only benefit the corporate institutions, he said.

He also condemned the dissolution of Medical Council of India.

The Congress leader said it was highly regrettable that TRS MPs were supporting the bill, which is nothing but 'draconian' and 'anti-poor' in nature. He said the conditions in public hospitals of Telangana were highly deplorable and that there was a huge shortage of medicines and infrastructural facilities across the State. He said that the TRS was supporting the bill as its government in Telangana was pursuing 'anti-poor' health policy in the State. He announced that the Congress party would fully support the on-going agitation by doctors and medical students in protest against the bill.