Gehlot Government, Protesting Doctors Reach "Compromise" Over Right To Health Bill

Nearly fifteen days after doctors and hospital owners in Rajasthan launched massive protests against the State government's Right to Health bill that gives people of the State  “the right to free consultation, drugs, diagnostics and emergency care at all public hospitals," the state government on Tuesday reached a "consensus" of sorts with the doctors that is likely to get the doctors to resume their work.

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted saying that they have reached a consensus with the protesting doctors over the bill. He added that Rajasthan will now become the first state to implement the Right To Health Act. The bill cleared by the state assembly is yet to get the governor's nod.

"I hope that the doctor-patient relationship will remain the same in future as well," the CM said.  

Doctors in Rajashan said a decision on the protests will be taken after a meeting in the evening, however IMA officials said there was no sense in agitating any more as most private hospitals have been exempted from the law.

Private doctors in Rajasthan had been demanding the withdrawal of the Bill passed in the state assembly on March 28. According to the bill, every resident of the state will have the right to emergency treatment and care "without prepayment" in any "public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centres."

The agitating doctors had said there was no clarity on the remuneration, and the burden on private hospitals will increase, with a possibility that non-emergency cases will be cited as emergency cases now. The doctors had also flagged the enormous powers the bill gives to health authorities, and had said this will increase bureaucratic hassles, making the process of filing complaints more complicated. The protests were becoming a challenge for the Gehlot Government in poll-bound Rajasthan that will see assembly elections at the end of the year.

The consensus however came after government officials chaired a meeting with doctors who were protesting against the Bill.  A delegation of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Rajasthan, Private Hospital and Nursing Home Society (PHNHS), and United Private Clinics and Hospitals of Rajasthan (UPCHAR) reached an eight-point agreement with the state government.

The understanding read that the health minister has excluded less than 50 bedded private multi-specialty hospitals from the law, and also all private hospitals that have not taken any facilities from the government in form of land and building at a subsidised rate. The government has clarified that only private medical college hospitals, hospitals established on PPP mode, hospitals established after taking land from the government free of cost or on subsidised rates, and those run by trusts will be covered by the proposed act.

It has also said that police cases and other cases registered during agitation shall be withdrawn, and a single window system for licenses and other approvals for hospitals will be set up, apart from promising that any consultation with two representatives of IMA will be done for further changes in rules.

The bill after being sent to the select committee was passed in the assembly despite protests by the opposition BJP. During the debate on the Bill in the assembly, the BJP had demanded that in case of private facilities, only multispecialty hospitals with 50 beds be included and that there should be a single forum for complaints.