Hundreds of resident doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Safdarjung Hospital, PGI-Chandigarh and other hospitals along with several other organisations took out a protest march in National Capital on Tuesday against the National Medical Commission Bill.
The march that was slated from AIIMS to the Parliament House was however stopped by the Police at INA Metro Station. Following, the doctors sat on protest at the Aurobindo Marg causing traffic jam for a while.
The doctors are opposing various provisions of the Bill that seeks to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI) with a new body.
The Bill was tabled in the Rajya Sabha in January by Union Health Minister JP Nadda. According to the Bill, practitioners of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy, can practice modern medicine once they complete a short-term “bridge” course. The Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Select Committee, following protests by doctors from across the country
The bill is also aimed at bringing reforms in the medical education sector which has been under scrutiny for corruption and unethical practices.
They had claimed that the proposed legislation would “cripple” the functioning of medical professionals by making them completely answerable to the bureaucracy and non-medical administrators. Doctors are also opposing the Bill's proposal of allowing practitioners of alternative medicines, such as homoeopathy and ayurveda, practise allopathy after completing a “bridge course”.
AIIMS Resident Doctors Association (RDA) has termed the bill as “anti-poor” and unacceptable to doctors and medical students in its present form.