IMA team to visit Kolkata

KOLKATA: A team of IMA doctors from Delhi will be in Kolkata to meet the governor of

West Bengal

and seek the scrapping of the Clinical Establishment (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Bill 2017 on Saturday. To be led by national president KK Aggarwal, the team is also planning to meet chief minister Mamata Banerjee. Around 20 members of the state IMA could accompany Aggarwal and his team. Speaking to ToI from Delhi, Aggarwal said this was the final effort to stop the bill which puts doctors in the line of fire and hospitals under unfair restrictions. “We have repeatedly pointed out that the bill is a lopsided one and is heavily loaded against doctors. They have been made liable to criminal proceedings for clinical errors. Also, the proposed bill lays down multiple conditions on private hospitals, including a ceiling on the amount of money they can charge. This infringes upon the right of private organizations to have their own rate structure,” Aggarwal said.

Even though the state unit of the IMA has supported the bill, it recently asked the chief minister to bolster security for doctors. Asked if state unit members will be part of the delegation on Saturday, Aggarwal said there has been no interaction with them. “We might have a team of 4-6, apart from local IMA doctors. So far, there has been no communication with state IMA in this regard,” he said.
An overwhelming majority of doctors in Kolkata are against the bill, claimed SK Dubey, president of IMA’s south Kolkata chapter. “Since our state leadership has sided with the government on the issue, we have taken it upon ourselves to oppose the bill. While the bill as a whole is detrimental to the health system, there are certain clauses that are blatantly against doctors and hospitals. For instance, it asks doctors to explain every clinical move to patients’ kin which is practically impossible and could slow down treatment. Private hospitals have been barred from charging as per their cost structure. More importantly, they have been prohibited from demanding money from patients if the latter refuse to pay. This infringes the right of a private organization to do business and will adversely affect private healthcare,” felt Dubey.

Meanwhile, a a team of health workers including doctors, nurses and activists met Governor

Keshari Nath Tripathi

with an appeal to not to sign the West Bengal Clinical Establishment (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Bill 2017 that was passed in the state assembly recently. The delegates alleged that the bill was passed in haste, bypassing democratic process.
“The honourable Governor opined that on the backdrop of poor coverage in government health delivery services non-regulation of quality healthcare in government set up, the bill will create further contradiction and trust deficiency between healthcare health care professionals and patients. He commented that people will soon feel the burnt. He agreed to take issue with all concerned stake holders,” said Dr

Ansuman Mitra

, secretary, Medical Service Centre.