Despite the Cabinet nod to a few amendments in the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017 earlier this week, doctors' bodies, particularly the Indian Medical Association, have not taken back their agitation against law, and may still resort to a nationwide strike tomorrow.
The Cabinet nod came after an intense lobbying effort by the IMA cadre across the country and forced the government to make crucial changes in the legislation.
For instance, the most controversial clause―the bridge course to allow AYUSH doctors to practice modern medicine to some extent―has now been done away with.
This clause was heavily opposed by doctors within the IMA, and even outside of it, on grounds that it would legitimise quackery. While on the one hand, the traditional systems of medicine have received a huge impetus under this government―he establishment of the ministry of AYUSH in 2014 being a case in point―in the case of the NMC Bill, the government seems to have succumbed to pressure from the practitioners of modern medicine.
Aside of the bridge course, the other demands of the IMA and other doctors' bodies have also been accommodated―the clause for the National Licentiate Examination has been replaced with a common MBBS final year exam, and penal provisions have been introduced for quacks and untrained medical professionals.
However, the IMA and others are still not satisfied and are agitating over issues such as increasing the number of elected members (in the Commission) from among the doctors, more representation for state governments and “autonomy” for the National Medical Commission. They are also pushing for their “long pending demands” with respect to violence against doctors, the Clinical Establishment Act, and the PCPNDT Act.
In the coming days, it will behind clearer whether the government will give in further, but a show of strength by doctors through countrywide strikes, and the act of closing ranks by practitioners of “modern medicine” might just mean more changes are on the anvil.