The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has opposed the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017, IMC (amendments) Bill, 2018, and Consumer Protection Bill, 2018, pending before the Parliament calling it anti-people and has proposed to observe an all-India protest on Friday which will see the participation of all the local and State branches of the association.
Seat reservation
“NMC Bill, 2017, aims to centralise the entire authority in the hands of the Government of India. The current proposal if adopted would result in repeal of the Indian Medical Council Act, 1956. The NMC still remains an anti-poor, anti-people and anti-federal legislation which if allowed to pass will have unforeseen consequences not only on the healthcare sector but also on the federal structure of the country,” noted a release issued by the IMA on Thursday.
The association said that reservation of medical seats up to 50% for managements is denial of equitable opportunities and is certainly anti-people and pro-rich. At present most of the States have a fee-fixing committee. After the implementation of the NMC Bill, they would lose their power to regulate fees, said IMA national president Santanu Sen.
He added that the NMC Bill was referred to the Parliamentary Standing Committee on health which had recommended 24 amendments unanimously.
The government of India had only accepted recommendation in a partial manner.
“The IMA demands capping of compensation for medical negligence cases, unreasonably high compensations will give rise to more frivolous litigations and promote defensive medicine. Litigations by organisations or associations are vindictive in nature. It will be a bad precedence to allow such a practice. Moreover, peer expert opinion has to be mandatory before taking up a case of medical negligence by the consumer forum. IMA representatives have to be included in the consumer mediation cells and district, State and national consumer councils as the prominent stakeholders,” he said.
“IMA is opposing the IMC (Amendments) Bill 2018 which was recently passed in the Lok Sabha. IMA has very strong reservations in the way that an elected MCI was superseded for no credible reason and undue haste was shown to proclaim an ordinance creating a nominated Board of Governors while the election process was underway. MCI represents the plurality of opinion from multitude of institutions in our federal nation. It is preposterous to install a Group of nominated Board of Governors who will never be able to fulfil the legitimate aspirations of diverse people of our country,” said IMA secretary general R.V. Asokan.
He added that all the three Bills have potential to adversely change the profile of medical profession and healthcare in India.