Straight from the Heart: 2nd October fast for nonviolence or fast for national protest

Dr KK Aggarwal

National President, IMA

Dear Colleague

It was a disturbing day for IMA yesterday. Dr RN Tandon and Dr DR Rai and I attended the National Council for Clinical Establishments chaired by the DGHS.

·         In the meeting, it was obvious that the National Council does not recognize the minutes of Inter-Ministerial Committee.

·         In every Inter-Ministerial committee meeting, the joint secretary of CEA, who is member secretary of the council, was present but his decision was not given any weightage.

·         The chairman of the council did not approve the very basic fact agreed by the ministry earlier that the clause to Stabilize needs to be changed to “basic life support services”

·         IMA clearly told the chair that for IMA, MOH is one and not divided into Health Ministry and DGHS section separately.  

Current situation

·                All decisions linked to clinical establishments have been deferred as CEA council has put a question mark on them.

·                PNDT amendments have been referred to central supervisory board and it is unlikely that next meeting will accept other IMA suggested agreed recommendations.

·                The capping demand has been referred to the Consumer Ministry.

·                The central act against violence also has been referred to Law Ministry.

No direct decision is being taken by Health Ministry. Can they not do it? Yes, if the political intent is there.

In the meeting yesterday, the main move, it seemed, was to bring an amendment, to allow lab technicians, biochemists and microbiologists, to practice and sign lab reports.

Without any pre-circulated agenda, they were allowed to present their case for 30 minutes. All other important agendas were postponed to accommodate the representatives of lab medicine and microbiology.

After their presentations the matter was not put for any discussion but referred to a committee.

We again pleaded our case that if the inter-ministerial committee minutes cannot be taken up by the council, let them be discussed as IMA resolutions. The request and the resolution were rejected.

We requested again at the end to review their decision of rejection but the same was not accepted by the chair.

We briefed the MOH economic advisor and PS to HM (IAS).

I also sent an SMS to the Health Minister. I did get a reply call from the minister and informed him in brief and that his PS has been informed in detail about the proceedings.

Future action

IMA wants implementation of inter-ministerial meeting decisions in toto by 2^nd October.

IMA is observing a Nationwide Non- Violence fast on 2^nd October and we are sure this will not turn to be Nation-wide Protest day.

Disclaimer: The views expressed in this write up are entirely my own.