Doctors stage protest in city, submit memorandum to DC

Opposing the National Medical Commission Bill 2017, private doctors under the aegis of IMA, Mangaluru unit, staged a protest and submitted a memorandum to the Deputy Commissioner opposing the bill.

IMA Mangaluru President K Ramachandra Kamath said, “The protest was against the proposed National Medical Commission Bill, 2017. The IMA has been opposing the bill for its draconian, anti-poor and pro-rich clauses. The Centre wants to dissolve the Medical Council of India, which has 125 members, with representatives from each state and reduce it to only nine members in the proposed NMC Bill.”

In spite of the IMA calling for protest, the patients who visited OPD in a majority of the hospitals in Mangaluru were treated by the available doctors in the OPD.

The outpatients departments in private hospitals were not much affected on Saturday following the “Dhikkar Diwas.”

Patients get treatment

A representative from a hospital in the city said, “None of the patients were sent back. A few of the doctors had attended a meeting of the IMA Mangaluru chapter. However, all the patients who visited the hospital were treated. The patients may not have got the doctor who they were looking for. However, the available doctors have treated the patients. In case of emergency, they were treated at casualty which functions round the clock.”

The superintendent of Wenlock Hospital Dr H R Rajeshwari Devi said the OPD services functioned normally. The hospital receives an average of 1,000 to 1,100 outpatients a day, the superintendent said.

OPD hit in Puttur

The OPD services were hit in private hospitals and clinics in Puttur.

In the private hospitals, only the emergency patients were treated and the OPD remained closed. As a result, there was an increase in the number of patients visiting government hospital in Puttur. The patients were seen standing in a queue to avail the services.

Puttur branch president Dr Ganesh Prasad Mudraje said, “The NMC Bill is anti-people and against the democracy. The Bill is against the aspiration of the medical fraternity.”

Well-known medical practitioner Dr K Suresh Puthuraya said, “The government should increase representation of doctors in the proposed NMC and drop all the clauses that are against the medical practitioners.”