12-hour IMA strike tomorrow, hospital services may be hit
04:30PM Mon 1 Jan, 2018
The Indian Medical Association (IMA) is holding a 12-hour strike tomorrow from 6am to 6pm in protest against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill.
It has declared tomorrow a "Black Day".
Outpatient services in private hospitals are expected to remain non-operational, but emergency and critical services will continue.
The NMC Bill, tabled on Friday, is likely to come up for discussion in Parliament tomorrow.
What's the proposed legislation about?
The NMC Bill seeks to replace the Medical Council of India with a new body. It proposes four autonomous boards for supervising exams, institutions and registration of practitioners.
The NMC will have government-nominated chairmen and members.
All graduates will have to clear an exam to get licenses for practicing.
It also allows alternative practitioners (homeopathy, ayurveda etc) to practice allopathy after a "bridge course".
Why does the IMA have a problem with it?
The IMA says the NMC Bill will "cripple" the functioning of medical professionals.
The clause allowing alternative practitioners to move to modern medicine after clearing a course will promote quackery, it said.
Moreover, it allows private medical colleges to charge at will.
The IMA called it "anti-poor, anti-people, non-representative, undemocratic and anti-federal".
The Delhi Medical Association has supported the IMA's protest.
'New body will take away voting rights of doctors'
Another major contention is the new body proposed, that will make medical professionals completely answerable to the bureaucracy, IMA said.
"(The Bill) takes away the right of every doctor to elect their medical council," former IMA president Dr KK Aggarwal said.
"Abolishing a democratic institution and replacing it with a body in which a majority is government-nominated is certainly a retrograde step."
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