Private hospitals shut today

Sushil Manav

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, January 1

Private hospitals and nursing homes across the state will remain closed tomorrow in protest against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has given a call to suspend routine services for 12 hours against the Bill seeking to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with the NMC.

Dr Atam Parkash Setia, former state IMA president, said that the emergency and critical services would remain open.

The NMC Bill, which was tabled in Parliament on Friday, seeks to replace the MCI and also proposes allowing practitioners of alternative medicines, such as homoeopathy and ayurveda, practice allopathy after completing a bridge course. Besides, the Bill provides big relaxation to private medical colleges by allowing them fill more percentage of seats under the management quota for fees decided by them and allows them to open a new medical college without prior inspection of their infrastructure.

“It will promote quackery,” said Dr Setia on the decision to introduce bridge course for homoeopathy and ayurveda doctors to practice modern medicine.

“The Bill also takes away the voting right of every doctor in India to elect their medical council. The MCI is a representative body of the medical profession in India. Any registered medical practitioner can contest the election and every qualified doctor can vote. Abolishing a democratic institution and replacing it with a body in which a majority will be nominated by the government, is certainly a retrograde step,” he further added.

The IMA, he says, feels that the Bill tends to dilute the quality of medical education in the country by doing away with stringent provisions of the MCI with regard to approval to medical colleges.

“Till now, no new medical college can start operations unless the MCI has conducted inspection and found the infrastructure satisfactory. But the new Bill allows a college to admit students without any inspection, as the NMC will give its approval with retrospective effect,” Setia explained.

“Till now, 85 per cent of seats in private medical colleges are filled by the government on fees decided by it and only 15 per cent seats are allowed to colleges under the management quota. But the new Bills seeks to give 60 per cent seats to private colleges making medical education costlier and out of reach of common people,” he said.

Dr Neeraj Nagpal, convener, Medico Legal Action Group, an NGO, said that a deathblow to the profession had been struck by the NMC Bill.

“The politicians who own private medical colleges either directly or through proxies have gifted themselves unlimited wealth and benefits with no checks or balances through this Bill. There is going to be an army of confused doctors who are trained in one system of medicine but will be practising another system of medicine,” said Dr Nagpal.

“The professional autonomy has been subjugated to bureaucratic control and the quality of medical training is bound to suffer,” he said.

Meanwhile, the district Unit of the IMA in Kaithal today submitted a memorandum to City Magistrate Sushil Kumar. Dr Vijay Kumar, president, and Dr Naveen Bansal, treasurer, of the district unit, stated that health services in the country would be adversely affected and it would bring bad name to the country and the medical profession if Bill was passed.

Proposals 

• The Bill proposes to allow practitioners of alternative medicines, homoeopathy and ayurveda, practice allopathy after completing a bridge course. 
• It provides big relaxation to private medical colleges by allowing them to fill more number of seats under the management quota for fees decided by them 
• The Bill also allows private medical colleges to open a new medical college without prior inspection of infrastructure