IMA no to NMC Bill, calls strike from April 2

New Delhi, March 25 

Rejecting the recommendations of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on the National Medical Commission Bill, the Indian Medical Association, the largest body of private doctors in India, on Sunday called for an indefinite strike from April 2.

More than 25,000 doctors at a ‘mahapanchayat’ here on Sunday opposed the recommendations and the Bill.

The NMC Bill proposes to allow practitioners of alternative medicines — homoeopathy and ayurveda — to practice modern medicine after a “bridge course”. It also proposes that the National Licentiate Examination (NLE) be compulsory for any MBBS doctor.

The panel recommended that the “bridge course” not be mandatory and to integrate the NLE with the final-year MBBS exam. — PTI