Right to Health Bill protest: Police use water cannons to disperse doctors

The Bill seeks to give people the right to avail free healthcare services

PTI03_21_2023_000122B Police use water cannons to disperse doctors protesting against the Rajasthan Right to Health Bill, at Statue Circle in Jaipur | PTI

Police used water cannons to disperse private doctors protesting against the Right to Health Bill as they tried to march towards the state assembly, where it was scheduled to be discussed on Tuesday.

The Right to Health bill, listed for discussion and passage in the Assembly, seeks to give the residents of the state the right to avail free healthcare services from hospitals and clinics, including private establishments.

Doctors who run private clinics have been agitating against the bill claiming that it will increase "bureaucratic interference" over them.

The protesting doctors, who gathered at the statue circle, were stopped by police as they tried to move towards the Assembly complex.

When the doctors tried to cross the barricades, police used water cannons and mild force to stop them.

The doctors raised slogans against the state government and demanded the withdrawal of the bill.

After staging a protest at the statue circle on Monday, a delegation of five doctors met the health minister in the Assembly and demanded the withdrawal of the bill.

The doctors were waiting for a response from the government but there was no development following which the private doctors started moving towards the Assembly on Tuesday.

Heavy deployment of the police force, including horse-mounted policemen, is also there at the statue circle.

The agitation is carried out by the Sanyukt Sangharsh Samiti, members of the Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Society and the United Private Clinics and Hospitals of Rajasthan.

They are the doctors who run their private hospitals and nursing homes.

The doctors have claimed that the bill will the condition of the private hospitals will become like that of government-run hospitals.

They further claimed that the doctor-patient relationship will be affected, district and state level committees will harass private doctors and the quality of treatment in private hospitals will be affected.