Right to Health Bill
Present circumstances:
- Rajasthan recently became the first state in the nation to pass the Right to Health (RTH) bill. The law frees up inpatient and outpatient care in some private hospitals as well as all state-run public hospitals.
- Since the measure was passed, the medical community has been criticising its contents.
- In a word, most doctors see the RTH bill as a challenge to their “business model”. This needs to be understood in the larger perspective of a nation that is battling a shattered moral compass in many areas of life, not just in the field of medicine.
The health conditions of Rajasthan:
- In a 2022 report titled “Healthy States, Progressive India” by the NITI Aayog, World Bank, and Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Rajasthan was placed 16th out of 19 main states.
- The state has infant mortality rates of 30.3 per 1,000 live births and neonatal death rates of 20.2 per 1,000 live births, respectively, according to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019–21).
- The state’s healthcare system is negatively impacted by the alarmingly high rates of child death.
- It is one of the states with the highest prevalence of nutritional anaemia in women and children. The state has an astoundingly low doctor to population ratio of five doctors per 10,000 people (in comparison, it is 21 per 10,000 population in Jammu and Kashmir).
- Because to its terrible medical situation, Rajasthan was the ideal state to draught and implement the RTH bill.
Arguments against the bill:
- Official statistics show that more than 78% of India’s healthcare is now delivered by private companies. So, the private doctor has largely replaced the conventional government doctor, and it is the private doctor who is most unhappy with the RTH bill in Rajasthan.
- A nationwide protest against the RTH bill will soon be organised, according to the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
- The bulk of IMA’s office holders are private practitioners, and vigorous competition for the group’s many positions is based on applicants’ clout in their regions politically, economically, and professionally.
- The Rajasthan RTH bill was created after extensive discussions between government officials and medical experts. When the law was first presented to the assembly in September 2022, significant revisions have been made. As a result, the stakeholders were updated throughout the law’s development.
Key phrase that is the focus of the objection:
- The primary complaint of the Rajasthani doctors protesting is with the clause in the bill that guarantees every resident of the state the right to emergency treatment and care at all hospitals and healthcare facilities without requiring payment in advance.
The following clause worries the doctors for two reasons:
- First, who decides what constitutes a medical emergency?
- Second, the coercion and arm-twisting involved in admitting or paying for these patients due to political and administrative pressure.
- Both concerns are legitimate, but neither is enough to support rejecting a revolutionary, ground-breaking move taken by any Indian state to safeguard the health of its citizens.
- The doctors should have seemed to be on their side in a circumstance when they stand to gain so much.
- Both of the aforementioned worries come more from doctors’ lack of faith in the system than from issues brought on by the RTH statute.
- It may be important to mention that Rajasthan also has one of the worst rates of violence against medical workers in the country.
- The basis of this aggressiveness is the patient’s or his family’s deep suspicion of the system in general and the doctor in particular, despite the fact that there are other reasons why there is violence towards medical professionals.
- By supporting a patient-friendly measure, the medical community in Rajasthan would have had the opportunity to at least partially allay this mistrust.
Conclusion:
- The public can speak with the doctor directly. The medical field and society are mirror images of one another. If doctors today want to look good in the mirror, they must make society appear to be in good shape.
- Even at the price of the doctor’s ability to make a living, bringing equality and justice is the simplest way to improve society.
- We medical professionals shouldn’t appear to be huddled together for organisational security. Instead, we should imitate men who are toiling in the heat alongside the poor. We should at least appear respectable, even if we don’t appear wealthy.
