On Eve of Doctors’ Day IMA urges Centre to reinstitute Dr B C Roy National Award

Dr Jayesh Lele, honorary secretary general, IMA (HQ) told The Indian Express on Thursday that among their topmost immediate demands was to re-institute the Dr B C Roy National Award. “The Government Of India has instituted Dr. B.C. Roy National Award in 1973 which was being conferred by the President of India every year. But since the last 5 years the said Award has been put on hold and we have appealed that this should be reinstituted,” Dr Lele said.

IMA HQ office bearers also addressed a media conference on the occasion saying that a function will be held on July 1 to reward dedicated and eminent doctors who have rendered distinguished services to the humanities. Union health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and Union Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar, among others, are set to attend, Dr Sahajanand Prasad Singh, national president of the IMA said.

The National Doctors’ Day is celebrated on July 1 every year to commemorate the birth and the death anniversaries of visionary leader, social reformer and astute clinician Dr.Bidhan Chandra Roy. The second chief minister of West Bengal was also a popular clinician and medical educationist. He was conferred with the Bharat Ratna, the country’s topmost civilian honour, in 1961, a year before his death.

Prof (Dr) Atul Goel, director, general health services, Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, had in a letter issued on June 24 urged each hospital to display the message ‘Happy Doctors Day’ in the OPD and at the entrance gate to make the community aware of the event. “We have suggested a list of activities to celebrate Doctors’ Day across the country wherein the community will express its gratitude to the doctors who risked their lives during testing times of the Covid-l9 pandemic and remained a constant source of inspiration and assurance the community looked for at those darkest hours. Many doctors died a hero while trying to save the patients but went on becoming legends to start a series of folk tales that will define optimism in the years to come,” Goel said in the letter..

Till November last year, the IMA had a count of 1,850 doctors who had succumbed to Covid. Around Rs 50 lakh compensation each has been given by the Centre to family members of at least 250 doctors who lost their lives to Covid. The IMA, on its part, has allotted Rs 10 lakh each to families of 40 young doctors, Dr Lele said.
Meanwhile, IMA office bearers have demanded a revision of the Consumer Protection Act 2020, excluding healthcare services and establishments from the ambit of the Act. There is also a need for a central law to protect doctors “There have been rising instances of attacks against healthcare workers and a central law is required to address this issue,” Dr Lele said.

The doctors also have articulated their grievances against mixopathy to the Union health minister .