April 2023 Issue

Dear IMA GSB Friends,
Seasons’ Greetings. Wishing you Happy Gujarat Sthapana Din, Labour Day and Buddh Purnima.
On 18-03-2023, under chairmanship of Dr. Anil Nayak, a very useful, successful important meeting of State Working Committee was held at Diu.
Problems of state level IMA were discussed and suggestions were gathered.

On 7-04-2023, on the occasion of “World Health Day”, all branches of IMA-GSB celebrated “Samarpan Day” by organizing various health awareness programs and diagnostic camps.

On 15-16 April 2023, a large quorum successful meeting of Central Working committee was organized at Statue of Unity under the host ship of IMA-Gujarat State Branch. All state branches and major city branches were represented by over 450 members who remained present. Our patron, Dr. Ketan Desai remained present and gave us good guidance. IMA national president Dr. Shard Agrawal, Secretary General Dr. Anil Nayak and national past president and president elect also remained present.

Rajasthan Government recently introduced a half cooked and detrimental RTH (Right to Health) bill, which was strongly opposed by our fraternity. Under the able guidance of national IMA HQ, we all stood irm in support of our friends and colleagues of Rajasthan. And our protest was greatly successful, such that the Raj. Govt. had to make all demanded changes in the bill. Please read points-to-ponder about RTH bill in my this letter at the end.
Right to Health Bill : Do we want to go to USA way?

On March 21, 2023 Rajasthan became the irst state in India to pass the Right to Health (RTH) bill. The bill allows free access to out-patient and inpatient services in all government and selected private hospitals in the state. Ever since the bill was passed, the medical fraternity has been up in arms against it for right reasons. The doctors in Rajasthan inally ended their 17-day strike over the Right to Health Bill after the state government agreed to their key demands including keeping unaided private hospitals outside the ambit of the proposed law.

Universal Health is a valuable concept. In ideal world, everyone who needs medical care should be able to receive the care, regardless of his paying capacity. It is up to the government to ind a mechanism and methodology how this well meant policy can be implemented in their
countries and states. Number of countries across the world have different models to ensure that lifesaving emergency medical care is easily available to its citizens but no country has done it punishing the doctors the way it is being considered in Rajasthan. Right to Health bill being introduced in Rajasthan has raised concerned amongst the medical community and hospitals.

US has enacted this law decades back, compelling their hospitals to treat anyone who walks into an Emergency Room (ER) – regardless of his
health insurance status or ability to pay. Emergency treatment is free in all hospitals – including the private ones. For these free patients, the transfer in Ambulance is also free. This law is widely used by illegal immigrants in US. US citizens too claim to have no insurance, show up at the hospital and overuse Emergency Room Services as a short cut to avoid seeing doctors in OPD – with regular appointment and fees. This is a precarious situation for doctors and hospitals if this is done on a large scale.

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