Protest by resident doctors leads to traffic snarls; detained near parliament

New Delhi: Traffic in South Delhi came to a standstill as hundreds of resident doctors from the India Institute of Medical Sciences and Safdarjung hospital protested outside their hospitals, and later marched to the parliament when most of them were detained, police said on Thursday.

The protesting doctors, whose agitation caused the medical services to be suspended causing extreme trouble to the patients, were doing it as the government took up the National Medical Commission Bill for discussion in the Rajya Sabha, days after it was cleared in there Lok Sabha.

The doctors, under the banner of Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) in collaboration with the Indian Medical Association (IMA) have raised serious concerns against the bill and are demanding amendments in it.

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.

The agitating doctors who began their protest on Thursday morning blocked the roads at the outer ring road area which affected the traffic for hours. They later proceeded to the parliament where they were detained while trying to gherao the building.

“We were trying to lead a peaceful protest against the NMC bill. We have been arrested and now being taken to the police station,” said a senior resident doctor at AIIMS.

Vijay Gujjar, a faculty on contract at AIIMS, questioned the government’s intention on hurrying up the NMC bill in the parliament.

“How can the government be so ignorant and arrogant,” he said in a reply when asked about the protest.

In the parliament house the NMC bill was taken up for discussion where several members of the upper house debated on the subject and raised their concerns.

Some of them included RJD leader Sanjay Jha, Congress Leader Jairam Ramesh, Gulam Nabi Azaz among others.