The Ministry has noted that the committee would study all the suggestions and amendments put forth by the IMA and submit a report within six weeks. The Ministry will then expeditiously act on the suggestions.
The IMA has been concerned with five community-oriented demands, which include reducing violence against the medical fraternity, for over a year now. In this direction, they delivered a notice to the Prime Minister, Union Health Minister, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Home Minister and Union Law Minister threatening to observe a satyagraha on November 16. They also partnered with eMediNexus, a social networking platform for doctors, to initiate a petition in support of their demands. The petition garnered signatures of over 50,000 doctors in its support.
The committee, which is to look into the matter, will consist of senior officials from the Ministry of Health, Home and Consumer Affairs and will include three representatives from the IMA and one from the Medical Council of India.
IMA president Dr. A Marthanda Pillai said: “This is a victory for Team IMA as this is the first time in the history of the association’s functioning that an inter-ministerial committee has been formed to look into its demands. Taking into consideration the above facts, Team IMA is postponing the November 16 satyagraha. We thank all those who signed our petition in support of the cause and hope that together we can bring about the necessary amendments needed to safeguard the nobility of the medical profession in India.”
Among the five issues put forward by the association are stopping the frequent instances of assault on doctorsy, the need for a Central Hospital and Medical Doctors’ Protection Act, urgent amendments in the PCPNDT Act to ensure that strict penalties are imposed on the actual act of sex determination and female foeticide and not for clinical errors in the maintenance of registers.