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Friday, March 29 2024
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CM appeals doctors to withdraw strike in the interest of general public

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Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday appealed agitating private doctors to withdraw their strike in the interest of general public.

“The government has no intention to trouble you. So, you have to withdraw your strike,’’ Siddaramaiah told agitating doctors who met him in Belagavi.

The chief minister has said that private doctors need not worry about the amendment to Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act. “The government does not propose amendment to the KPME Act to trouble the doctors,’’ the chief minister said.

He said discussions would be held with Minister for Health and Family Welfare K.R. Ramesh Kumar and office-bearers of Indian Medical Association before presenting the Bill for amendments in the legislature.

“The government has come forward to help the poor by making amendment to the KPME Act. All the doctors are not bad. The government has no intention to control the doctors. So, I appeal you to withdraw the agitation,’’ he told the doctors.

Out-patient service in private hospitals and clinics across Karnataka were affected on Monday as some 50,000 private doctors went on strike in protest against an amendment bill that is intended to regulate their functioning.

The private hospitals, however, will have minimum doctors on duty to admit or look after in-patients and provide emergency services.

Around 25,000 private doctors from across the state staged a day-long demonstration at Belagavi, about 500 km from here, where the winter session of the Karnataka legislature began on Monday.

The 10-day session of the Assembly and Council is held in winter every year to address the issues of people living in the state’s northern region. “We will resort to relay hunger strike from Tuesday at Belagavi if the government does not respond to our demand to drop the draconian provisions in the amendment bill. We will not treat out-patients,” H.N. Ravindra, president, Indian Medical Association Karnataka unit said.

About 45,000 private hospitals, including 5,000 in Bengaluru, were shut on November 3 as doctors went on flash strike, demanding changes in the bill with penal provisions, including imprisonment, hefty fines and regulating costs for various treatments or surgeries in private hospitals and clinics.

The Indian Medical Association’s Karnataka unit has described the proposed law as being “draconian.” Private hospitals are also demanding that the state focus on lifting the standards of care at government hospitals before attempting to regulate their establishments. Doctors point out that a commission headed by the former Karnataka chief justice Vikramjit Sen — on whose recommendations in April this year hospitals are being regulated — had stated that government hospitals should be brought on par with private hospitals before embarking on the fixing of prices for medical treatment.

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