Doctors Observe Bandh To Protest Against Karnataka Govt’s Draconian Medical Law, Citizens Suffer

Protesting against the Karnataka government’s ‘draconian’ Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Bill 2017 that seeks to regulate private hospitals, private medical establishments across the state have gone on a one-day strike today (3 November).

The strike has been called by the Karnataka chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and all outpatient medical facilities in private clinics have been affected. Only emergency cases are being treated. As reported by The Hindu, citizens had to bear the brunt of this action as people looking for medical services were greeted with shut doors as most hospitals taking part in the strike had kept only their emergency wards open.

“This is not a strike, but a show of solidarity against the unacceptable demands of the government that places a lot of restrictions on private healthcare practices. We have notified all our patients since the last few days that there will be a strike on the November 3rd and that all OPDs [out-patient departments] of all private hospitals will be closed. We expect that government hospitals will be reeling with the pressure of having to deal with all the patients in need of healthcare that are being sent back from private hospitals,” Group Medical Director of Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital Group, M D Marker, is quoted as saying.

President of the Karnataka chapter of the IMA, Dr H N Ravindra, had earlier on Thursday (2 Novermber) said that the provisions of the proposed bill which include fines and imprisonment if a surgery goes wrong, fixing prices of specific medical procedures had led to the doctors protesting against it.