IMA stir against ‘no pvt practice’ order

Ranchi: The Jharkhand chapter of the IMA on Tuesday wrote to chief minister Hemant Soren, demanding an immediate stay on the July 25 order issued by the state health department that directs the doctors associated with government healthcare centres to refrain from attending to patients in private hospitals after duty hours.State IMA president Dr A K Singh said, “Over 12,000 government doctors, who have been rendering services to patients from block to district levels, are being harassed by senior health department officials by revisiting a letter that was issued in 2016 by the then health secretary K Vidyasagar. The order was put on hold due to its arbitrary provisions and we were assured that it would be cancelled.” He claimed that the order is arbitrary as the government doctors are allowed private practice as they do not get any non-practising allowance.