Vijayawada: About 1,700 doctors across the state on Friday responded to the call of the Indian Medical Association by wearing black badges to protest against the Consumer Protection Bill-2018, introduced in Parliament on December 20.
IMA state members spoke to the media in Vijayawada, and gave the reasons for their opposition to the Bill and its possible impact on healthcare in India.
IMA state president D. Sreehari Rao said, “The new Bill empowers the District Consumer Redressal Forum to increase the compensation awarded to a patient from the present Rs 10 lakh to Rs 1 crore and the jurisdiction of the State Consumer Commission from Rs 1 crore to Rs 10 crore. This will be a huge burden on the doctors.”
Dr Sreehari Rao further explained that the Bill will leave doctors susceptible to unnecessary harassment by patients or their associates. “The Bill, in its current form, allows not only patients but any of their associates to file a complaint with the consumer forum,” he said, adding that the provision of consumer mediation cells can be misused to harass and blackmail doctors.”
“The clause doing away with the need of expert medical opinion, will play havoc with doctors doing their duty,” added Dr Sreehari Rao.
Speaking of the consequences of the CPA Bill on patient care, IMA national vice president Dr P. Gangadhar Rao said that doctors will go for defensive medicine that may increase the cost of diagnostic tests. “Any doctor would be wary of taking up serious cases as he would not want to be caught in legal tangles. Ultimately, the CPA Bill will be more harmful to society,” he said.
Dr Gangadhar Rao questioned the Central government why the government and private professionals pay only Rs 2 lakh to Rs 20 lakh in case of loss of life due to professional/government negligence and only doctor should pay in crores.
Dr Manoj said: “To oppose this Consumer Protection Bill that will be tabled in the Rajya Sabha, the IMA has called for a nationwide protest.”
IMA, past national president Dr G. Samaram, state general secretary, Dr P. Phanidhar, finance secretary Dr P. Anil Kumar, Vijayawada president Dr T.V. Ramana Murthy, Vijayawada secretary Ch. Manoj Kumar, IMA executive committee members, senior doctors of the city and members of IMA were present.
