Strikes are a common occurrence in India. Here are the details relating to the infinite strike that begins today.
Doctors from Bengaluru have gone on an indefinite strike which started on the 16th of November, Thursday morning. Over 22,000 doctors from nearly 6,000 medical establishments across Bengaluru will abstain from working in their outpatient departments today. Only emergency cases will be attended by the doctors.
The strike is being called in protest of the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act, 2007 which makes hospitals accountable for medical negligence.
Top doctors like Devi Shetty and Sudarshan Ballal among others will sit in protest between 10 am and 6 pm here. The protest will take place at the Indian Medical Association (IMA) office in Chamarajpet.
The doctors from Bengaluru will join their colleagues from at least 14 other districts already protesting against the Bill which proposes to introduce prison terms, higher penalties, more grievance cells on private medical establishments and practitioners as well as a price control on medical procedures among other provisions.
The strike goes against Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah’s grand plans to add healthcare (Aarogya Bhagya-Universal Health Care) to his long list of populist schemes—mostly around food security in the ‘Bhagya’ series of schemes—targeted at socially and economically weaker sections, hoping to win their support ahead of next year’s assembly elections.
The IMA led by Dr. HN Ravindra has been on a relay hunger strike in front of the Vidhan Soudha in Belagavi where the legislative session is progressing.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah too has intervened and asked the doctors to call off the strike. He said that this is but a draft bill and as promised the government will consult the doctors on the bill soon.
Private Hospitals And Nursing Homes Association (PHANA) president C Jayanna said he five associations including the Indian Medical Association (IMA), PHANA and others held an emergency meeting today where they decided to intensify the stir indefinitely.
He charged that the state government was implementing the Sen committee report selectively.
The report, if implemented in toto, will make government hospitals equally accountable, he said.
“This Act, if passed, will wreak havoc. We briefed the government and health minister, but no one heeded to our plea,” Mr. Jayanna said.
Siddaramaiah had appealed to the doctors to call off their stir, saying the government’s intention to bring the amendments was not to trouble them.
Mr. Jayanna also rejected the charge that the doctors were holding the state to ransom.
PHANA secretary R Raveendra alleged that state Health Minister Ramesh Kumar was adamant on passing the proposed amendments.
Health services had been hit in Karnataka twice earlier this month as private hospitals and nursing homes failed to function following protests against the proposed amendments.
At Belagavi, over 10,000 private practice doctors had assembled near Suvarna Vidhana Soudha and staged a protest yesterday.
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