Leading country-wide health rights network Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) has heaped praise on the Rajasthan Government for enacting India’s first Right To Health (RTH) Act but is appalled that bodies like the Indian Medical Association are protesting against the path-breaking legislation.
In a strongly-worded statement, the JSA asserted that the IMA and similar others are “engaging in agitations aimed at pulling down the Act itself.”
Such entities comprising private medical practitioners don’t “perhaps realise that such a stand (by them) goes against the ethos of the medical profession, and the duties of healthcare providers to fulfil people’s right to health care.”
'Recognise the importance of this Act'
The JSA has appealed to the agitating medical professionals and their associations like IMA “to recognise the importance of this Act, and to positively engage with streamlining of the Act and Rules”.
The Abhiyan asserted that a veritable misinformation campaign “is being spread by certain lobbies which are claiming that the Act is anti-private sector and are demanding to withdraw the Act as politically motivated.”
The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan’s statement says that it “Welcomes the Rajasthan Right to Health Act passed in the State Legislative Assembly on March 21, 2023, and congratulates the State Government for achieving an important milestone in the history of health policy in India.”
It went on, “Rajasthan has initiated the process of making basic health services a justiciable right, based on providing legal guarantee of public health services and emergency healthcare in the state, setting a historical example for the rest of the country.”
Simultaneously, the JSA has also expressed concern that despite several strengths, some provisions in this historical law need clarifications or modifications to ensure the optimally effective implementation of this Act.
“This would ensure the realization of health rights for people of the state, while also being fair to healthcare providers.”
Among several things, the health rights body has recommended that “greater clarity and specificity is needed in the Act about the definition of “emergency care”, keeping in view the complexities of emergency management, and the limited set of first aid measures which can be offered by most healthcare providers.
It has also stressed that larger private hospitals (those with more than 50 beds) should have broader provisions for providing emergency services, while smaller healthcare providers and clinics should have restricted obligations in this regard, in keeping with their limited capacities
The JSA has stressed that the reimbursement to private providers for providing emergency healthcare should be “transparent, hassle-free, corruption free and time-bound. It added that there was a need to “strengthen mechanisms to ensure accountability of regulatory authorities to people as well as involved healthcare providers.”
The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, including the JSA’s Rajasthan unit, has demanded a major increase in the state health budget to provide substantial additional resources “which must accompany expansion and strengthening of public health services in the state, required for fulfilling all the provisions under this Act.”
The Abhiyan claimed that the Rajasthan Government has agreed to address many of these issues on the floor of the State Legislative Assembly, or in their other public communications.
