Mumbai: Students and doctors from various medical colleges and hospitals in the city staged protest against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill which was introduced in the Parliament on July 22.
The Emergency Action Committee of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) opposed the NMC Bill 2019, which was introduced in Parliament on Monday, saying it has only undergone cosmetic changes and the core concerns raised by the doctors’ body are still unaddressed.
Though the deleterious clauses have been retained in the bill, the addition of Section 32 that legalises quackery by empowering community health providers to practice medicine will only endanger the lives of people.
This is the single largest threat to the health of the nation, the IMA said in a statement. “The decision to couple NEXT and NEET lacks clarity and is absurd.
While the licentiate examination will give license to the minimum qualified person to practice medicine, NEET will be selecting the best students aspiring for post graduate medical education,” said National president of IMA Santanu Sen.
He said this will prevent more than 50 per cent of the qualified MBBS graduates from practicing modern medicine. “This will also give rise to quackery as the government will allow the quacks,
who are hardly 30 per cent of the total doctor's population to practice under the pretext of ‘Shortage of Doctor’,” Sen said. But, health experts across the country have raised certain apprehensions on the revised draft and the proposed Community Health Provider clause.
Experts opined the clause has a very vague terminology. By appointing a mid-level community health provider, the government is treating the rural people as secondary citizens.
Why compromise on the health of poor and needy rural people? Rather, the government must build more medical colleges and create more qualified doctors.
Dr Suhas Pingle, Secretary, IMA, Maharashra, “The Indian Medical Association is shocked to see how smartly the government is circumventing the terminology of the bridge course.
This is horrible. The term Community Health Provider is a vague concept. If this is implemented, even the nurse and alternative medicine practitioners can claim that he/she is associated with modern medicine.”
