AIIMS RDA strike over NMC ends; medical services restored
New Delhi, Aug 4 (Healthwire ): The Resident Doctors Association of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) on Sunday called off the three-day long strike over the controversial National Medical Council Bill and assured the restoration of the OPD services, hours after they met the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan over the legislation.
AIIMS RDA was part of the team who initiated a strike after the Centre passed the NMC bill in the Parliament on Aug 1. While the AIIMS RDA ended the agitation, there was no confirmation from the other stakeholders such as the RDA of Safdarjung and others.
In a letter to the AIIMS administration, the RDA said they were ending the strike only due to the assurances by the Health Minister and other authorities.
“As per the decision of the RDA Governing Body Meeting at 9 pm Saturday, we demanded and we’re assured by the minister that representatives of RDA and student Union of AIIMS, New Delhi will be consulted before framing of the regulation of the NMC bill… We have communicated the same to all the residents in the GBM held today at 10 am that the strike would continue till a written communication is made in this regard,” the letter said.
As per the assurances given by the health Ministers, RDA AIIMS has received a written communication via mail from Sh Arun Singhal, Additional Secretary at health Ministry today at 01.03 pm.
“We then, communicated to the director AIIMS about the development and submitted an official letter to call off the strike in view of disruption of patient-care services at AIIMS, New Delhi over last three days,” the AIIMS RDA said in the letter.
The three day agitation affected over 20,000 patients due to the disruption of OPD services.
The bill also has provisions for making national standards in medical education uniform by proposing that the final year MBBS exams to be treated as an entrance test for the post-graduation and a screning test for students in medicione from foreign countries.
This exams, called the National Exit Test (NEXT), would ensure that the proposed NMC moves away from a system of repeated inspection of infrastructure and to fous on outcomes rather than processes.