Enraged by continuous dithering of the State Government on their demand to bring changes in the Clinical Establishments Act, the Uttarakhand chapter of Indian Medical Association (IMA) has decided to discharge all the patients from the private hospitals and clinics on September 13. There are more than 1400 private hospitals and clinics located across the State which treat thousands of patients daily.
The secretary of IMA, Dr D D Chaudhury said that the IMA had given a notice of strike from September 15. “But it is unfortunate that no response has come from the State Government. We have directed today all our members to start discharging the patients admitted there and by September 13 all the private hospitals and clinics should have no in-house patient. On September 15, we will enforce a total lockout and the district units of the IMA would hand over symbolic keys of all the medical establishments in their areas to the respective district magistrates,’’ he said on Friday.
It is learnt that the IMA kept hoping that the Chief Minister Trivendra Singh Rawat would invite them for talks to discuss their demand of bringing necessary changes in the act. However, they are a disappointed lot with the State Government choosing to sit on the matter. The statement of the secretary medical health, Nitesh Jha had stoked their anger further in which he had made it clear that the court’s order on the clinical establishments would be enforced. The mood of the IMA clearly reveals that it is determined to fight a decisive battle on the important issue.
It is pertinent to mention here that the Uttarakhand High Court (HC), in a landmark judgment recently, had directed the State Government to seal all such hospitals and clinics not registered under Clinical Establishment Act.
IMA, the association of private medical practitioners, wants that the act should not be passed in its present form. It wants the Uttarakhand Government to follow the Haryana model of the act where all clinical establishments having less than 50 beds are exempted from the stringent provisions of the act.
Clinical Establishment Act
In an attempt to rein in the private clinics and hospitals, the State Government had brought into force the Clinical Establish Act in 2016. However thanks to strong resentment of the private doctors and lack of will on part of the authorities, the act is yet to be enforced in the State. Under the provisions of the Act, it is compulsory for all the clinical establishments like doctors’ clinics, private hospitals, diagnostic centres, homeopathic doctors and Ayush doctors to get registered with the State council. The Act calls for the clinical establishments to keep a record of the all the patients and disclose and display the type of services they provide.
These establishments are bound to disclose the number and qualification of the staff they are employing and display the rate lists clearly under the Act.