Karnataka Doctors Won’t Budge on Strike After Talks with CM Fail

Over 50,000 private doctors are on strike, protesting the introduction of an amendment they call ‘anti-doctor’.

The private doctors in Karnataka will continue with their strike as talks with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday failed. The meeting between the representatives of private hospitals and the Chief MinIster took place hours after more than 10,000 private doctors began the ‘Belgavi Chalo’ protest, demanding that the government drop the new amendments to the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act.

Apart from the those protesting in Belgavi, at least 40,000 private practitioners in Karnataka are also on strike. On Monday morning, the doctors staged a protest in Belagavi, where the winter session of the Karnataka assembly was underway and by afternoon the representatives were called for a meeting by the Chief Minister.

The doctors have been protesting alleging that the proposed amendments to the bill are ‘anti-doctor’. The proposed amendments make it mandatory for all private hospital and clinics to register themselves with government, fix the rates of their medical treatments, and create a grievance redressal committee.

The Chief Minister asked the representatives to stop their protests, telling the representatives that the government has not taken a final decision on the bill and another round of consultation will take place before the bill is presented in the assembly. He also added that the bill was pro-poor and not anti-doctor.

However, following the meeting, representatives branded the talks a failure and said they would continue with the protests. Dr HS Ravindra, president of the Indian Medical Association’s Karnataka chapter said, “While the government has given a positive response for most of our demands, there was a disagreement over the grievance redressal committee, because of which we will continue to protest. We will take a call on going on a hunger strike on Tuesday,” said Dr HS Ravindra.

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

"Out-patients will not be seen or treated in private hospitals or clinics across the state as our members are on strike against the (amendment to the) Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act," Indian Medical Association (IMA) state Secretary B Veeranna told IANS.

(With Inputs from IANS)

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