Private Hospital’s strike against KPME Bill Hits Medical Services in District
Udupi: Intensifying their protest against the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendments) Bill, the private hospitals including diagnostic facilities shut down out-patient department services across the district on Thursday, November 17.
All private hospitals and clinics in Udupi district remained closed extending support to the call given by the Medical Association. Unfortunately, hundreds of patients who were unaware of the protest were hit hard.
Only the trauma victims who were seriously injured were admitted as inpatients at the emergency ward at Manipal Hospital.
There was a huge queue at the government hospitals in Udupi, Kundapur and Karkala Taluks and doctors were seen attending emergency cases.
The Udupi district surgeon Dr Madhusudhan Nayak said that the government hospital doctors were directed to be ready to face emergencies. The medical staff on leave were told to report for duty, he said.
Meanwhile Ibrahim Gangolli driver of Apadbhandva Ambulance service Kundapur was providing free ambulance service for Kundapur region patients who needed to be shifted to Udupi district and Manipal Hospital in emergency cases.
Private doctors are staging a hunger strike in Belagavi, about 500 km from the state capital Bengaluru, where the 10-day winter session of the state legislature began on Monday. As some 50,000 private doctors went on strike to protest against the amendment bill intended to regulate their functioning.
The four main demands are inclusion of government doctors under the KPME Act, no grievances redressal committees, no penalty on erring doctors or their imprisonment for the death of any patient due to medical negligence and ceiling on cost of treatment only for the government health schemes under which eligible patients are treated in private hospitals or clinics.
