New Delhi: Rajasthan doctors called off their two-week intense protest Tuesday after reaching an agreement with the government over the Right to Health (RTH) Bill in the state.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot tweeted that Rajasthan had become the first state in the country to implement Right to Health. “I hope that the doctor-patient relationship will remain the same in future as well,” he said.
Earlier Tuesday, a delegation of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) Rajasthan, Private Hospital and Nursing Home Society (PHNHS), and United Private Clinics and Hospitals of Rajasthan (UPCHAR) reached an eight-point agreement with the state government.
The contentious Right to Health bill was passed in the state assembly on 28 March, which allowed every resident of the state the right to emergency treatment and care “without prepayment” at any “public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centers”.
Doctors, however, opposed it, fearing increased bureaucratic interference in the functioning of private hospitals.
Some private doctors believed the Bill was not just to provide free healthcare services but also to reap political dividends in an election year.
Doctors also said private hospitals were already roped in for two government schemes — Rajasthan Government Health Scheme (RGHS) and Chiranjeevi Yojana. Any further additional responsibilities would be the last nail in the coffin for private hospitals, they told ThePrint.
However, Tuesday’s agreement noted that the health minister had already excluded less than 50-bedded private multi-speciality hospitals from RTH. Secondly, all private hospitals “established without taking any facilities from the government in form of land and building at subsidised rate shall also be excluded from RTH Act”, The Indian Express reported.
It said hospitals to be included in RTH would be in four categories — private medical college hospitals, hospitals established on PPP mode, hospitals established on land taken from the government free of cost or on subsidised rates and those hospitals run by trusts (funded by the government in form of land and building).
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