The Indian Medical Association (IMA) today sought some amendments to the West Bengal Clinical Establishments (Registration, Regulation and Transparency) Act, 2017, to bring a single-window accountability.
"The Medical Association is not against regulations and accountability, but the manner it has been put into the Law is contradictory to the Central Establishment Act. The IMA wants a single-window accountability, a single-window regulation and that's not there in this Act," IMA President KK Aggarwal told PTI.
"There is no provision in the Law for making medicine cheaper, no mandate for cheaper investigation, nor for taking action against fraudulent complaints or a quack," he said.
"As per the Law, even for a clerical error a doctor can be put behind the bars... And for every complaint made against him, a doctor has to get an advance bail... Why is this difference between doctors in private and government facilities," Aggarwal said.
"The matter is that the Clinical Establishment Act of West Bengal contradicts some of the IMA's stands. We want the Mamata Banerjee government to consider some amendments," the cardiologist said.
Earlier, Aggarwal along with IMA Secretary General Dr R N Tandon and others met West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi and submitted their objections.
The IMA president said the governor's office was trying
to facilitate their meeting with the state health ministry and the Chief Minister's Office.
Aggarwal said they had apprised the governor of some provisions which were neither community-friendly nor doctor- friendly. The governor said that he would send our recommendations to the Mamata Banerjee government for consideration of amendments to the Law.
He said that the IMA was already a part of a five-member ministerial committee in the central government.
"There we are coming out with an alternative Clinical Establishment Act, compensation for negligence, violence against doctors. These are totally different from it," he said.
Whether the IMA is mulling the option to move court against the Law, Aggarwal said, "At the moment we have our representation to the governor. He has said that he will put his recommendations to the health ministry... We will have to meet the ministry and wait for those amendments.
"But if the ministry rejects our suggestions then our legal team will decide what to do," he said.
