New Delhi: The Federation Of Resident Doctors Association of India on Wednesday threatened to withdraw all of its members (resident doctors) from the hospitals across the country if the controversial National Medical Commission Bill is tabled in the Rajya Sabha without the demanded amendments.
The FORDA and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has been protesting against the NMC bill ever since it was proposed in 2017 and the agitation intensified after the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led Government got the bill passed in the Lol Sabha despite clamour raised by the IMA and FORDA seeking changes in the bill.
The IMA and the FORDA also said that essential services will be withdrawn from the hospitals.
“This is to inform that if the NMC bill is tabled in the Parliament without the changes demanded there will be a complete shut down. Resident Doctors will be withdrawn from the hospitals and also the essential services will be suspended,” a senior leader of the FORDA said.
In a letter issued by the FORDA, the pan India resident doctors body, mentioned that the government has been apprised about various sections and clauses in the bill that would destroy the entire medical profession.
The bill also has provisions for making national standards in medical education uniform by proposing that the final year MBBS exams to be treated as an entrance test for the post-graduation and a screning test for students in medicione from foreign countries.
This exams, called the National Exit Test (NEXT), would ensure that the proposed NMC moves away from a system of repeated inspection of infrastructure and to fous on outcomes rather than processes.
On Monday, nearly 5,000 doctors and other medical professionals to oppose the bill had marched from the All India Instutute of Medical Sciences to the Union Health Ministry situated at the Nirman Bhawan.
Later the participants also held a candle light march within the campus.
“The autonomy and pride of the entire medical fraternity has been surrendered to the whimps and a fancy of politicians and bureaucrats even as the Union Health Minister is doctor himself,” Amarinder Singh Malhi, the president of Resident Doctors Associaton of AIIMS, said.
IMA also taken a strong stand against the bill throughout.
“We continue to protest against the NMC bill. The section 32 of the bill instantly provides licencing to 3.5 lakhs unqualified non-medical persons to practice modern medicine and adds more and more such persons every year. Not just that there are many other provisions that will destroy the medical profession as a whole,” Shantanu Sen, National President of IMA, said.
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