Team Herald
PANJIM: Around 800 doctors across Goa, who went on a 12-hour strike (6 am to 6 pm) on Tuesday in protest against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, withdrew the stir by afternoon after the government referred the Bill to the Parliamentary Standing Committee.
Members of the India Medical Association (IMA-Goa State) staged a protest at Azad Maidan, as part of a nation-wide agitation against the proposed legislation which seeks to replace the existing Medical Council of India. IMA members also presented a memorandum to Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar.
IMA member Dr Shekhar Salkar said, “I am happy that the NMC Bill has been referred to the standing committee. Now we will be able to explain our stand to standing committee.”
The strike was in force for around four and a half hours. Doctors were against the provision of bridge courses proposed in the bill. The legislation, which seeks to replace the Medical Council of India, also proposes allowing practitioners of alternative medicines, such as homoeopathy and ayurveda, practise allopathy after attending a short-term course.
“NMC is a pro-private management bill paving the way for widespread corruption. It removes all the regulations before starting a medical college. No one needs any permission. Any private medical college can raise its UG/PG seats. Only up to 40 percent of seats in a private medical college can be regulated by the government. For 60 percent or more seats the private colleges will fix the rates,” said (IMA-Goa State), President Dr Ajay Pednekar speaking to the media during the protest.
“There are loopholes in financial penalties opening the flood gates of corruption and as a result medical education in the country will become expensive placing the lower socio economic groups in great disadvantage. Also, only five states will be represented in NMC at any point of time while the other 24 will be unrepresented,” he said.
Doctors during the protest said that the universities do not have representation in NMC and only one per State will be represented in an advisory body called Medical Advisory Council.
Due to the protest, OPD services across 140-odd private hospitals in the State were affected till 3 pm. However, the healthcare services in government hospitals and emergency/causality services in all private hospitals continued as usual.
“Not much was affected as emergency and critical areas were functioning. Also the strike was called off at 3pm which was initially supposed to end by 6pm,” Salkar said.
GARD president Dr Akshay Naik said that Goa Medical College and other government hospitals continued to function as usual. “We are giving moral support to the strike as we agree that the NMC Bill is not in the favour of the medical profession. But since we are in the government set up and since we don’t want to put patients to inconvenience, we had decided not to shut down the OPDs,” Naik said.
