DNA Special: Analysis of Doctors vs Rajasthan govt clash over ‘Right to Health’ bill in hospitals

Eight crore people of Rajasthan will now get an equal right to healthcare through a new bill introduced in the Rajasthan parliament, called the Right to Health bill. Meanwhile, the Right to Health bill in Rajasthan has kicked up a ruckus in the state.

Rajasthan has become the first state in the country to implement it. This law is no less than a lifeline for those crores of poor people of Rajasthan, who will now get uninterrupted access to healthcare, without any excessive forms and formalities.

While the Right to Health bill is being lauded by the economically weaker population of Rajasthan, the private hospitals in the state are staunchly protesting against the new rule, calling it the Right to Kill bill. The Gehlot government is calling Right to Health a masterstroke, while the private hospitals have gone on a strike against the government.

Today even the doctors of government hospitals went on strike against the Right to Health Act in support of the doctors in private hospitals. About twenty thousand government doctors went on mass leave. OPD services stopped. Only emergency services were seen running, due to which the patients who needed immediate healthcare were left suffering.

So, on one hand, the public is getting upset due to the mass holiday of doctors in Rajasthan, and on the other hand, the protesting doctors in Jaipur are enjoying the collective holiday, roaming the streets and slamming the Congress government.

It is not known from the faces of these doctors whether they are busy demonstrating the Right to Health Act or just roaming around. There is a lot of laughter going on among the doctors. Seeing the faces of these doctors, it seems as if they are enjoying a paid vacation rather than protesting against the Right to the Health bill.

According to the Right to Health bill in the state, all government and private hospitals in Rajasthan will have to provide treatment without depositing any fee from the relatives of the patient who came in an emergency. Fee can be taken from the patient and his relatives only after the treatment. This means that anyone who comes in for emergency treatment, will not be liable to pay any fee before they receive treatment.

There is also a provision that in case of an accident, no hospital or health care center will delay the treatment by saying that they are waiting for the NOC or police report from the police. If a patient dies in the hospital during treatment and the family of the deceased is not able to pay the amount for the treatment, even then they will not be able to refuse to give the dead body to the hospital.

It will also be the responsibility of the hospital to refer a patient to another hospital in critical condition. It will also be the responsibility of the hospital to provide an ambulance for the patient. Apart from this, the government has made OPD, IPD, medicines, tests, and ambulance services completely free in all government hospitals and some selected private hospitals.

Through these provisions, every citizen of Rajasthan has been given the right to health. But all these provisions violate the Right to Wealth of private hospitals and doctors because for private hospitals, patients are just viewed as their personal ATMs and they attempt to attract as much money as they can from them.

Now, it is the choice of the government on whether they will be retracting their Right to Health bill after the protests of the doctors, or will they continue with their policy.

READ | DNA Explainer: Why Rajasthan’s private doctors took out massive protest rally in Jaipur?