GB doctors resume private practice temporarily as ban notification still awaited

The doctors and faculty members of Agartala Government Medical College and GB Pant hospital of Tripura have resumed private practice temporarily as the government was yet to issue a detailed notification regarding the cabinet decision approved earlier.

The Tripura government issued a blanket ban on private practice of the doctors serving in the state's biggest referral hospital in order to improve healthcare delivery services. However, the government did not issue any detailed notification describing how the new decisions would be enforced.
The doctors and faculty members of the hospital in spite of ventilating their reservations and concerns pertaining to the decisions, discontinued private practice honouring the government’s decisions. But, even after two weeks of time has elapsed, the government was yet to issue the notification.
Considering the situation, AGMC Teachers’ Forum, an organisation of faculty members, convened a meeting of its executive committee. In the meeting, it has been decided that the doctors will resume consulting patients in their private chambers and clinics as an interim measure. Through this decision, the doctors have been empowered to follow up their patients consulting them for long periods. However, this resumption shall continue until the notification is issued.
“The in-service doctors had been given a choice either to permanently discontinue their practice or to continue for the period until the order is issued. Some doctors have already started practice in their private chambers while some chambers and clinics have been shut permanently,” said an office-bearer of the organisation.
Earlier, doctors have demanded some structural reforms before the order is enforced in a strict sense. The doctors demanded sufficient pay and perks, if not equal, equivalent to other medical colleges of the same stature, implementation of a fairly transparent and well accepted promotion policy for the in-service doctors and amendments in the Medical Education Service rules.
The super-specialist doctors, on the other hand, also opposed the move citing their reservations. The Health Secretary held a meeting with the doctor bodies and assured them that all their genuine demands shall be fulfilled and addressed in a time-bound manner.
Chief Minister Dr Manik Saha in a recent speech said that the state government stood firm on its decision to ban private practice of the GB Pant hospital. He said that the decision was taken as per the recommendations of the AIIMS team that visited Agartala as per an MoU exchanged between both the healthcare institutions.
Meanwhile, some quarters raised objections on unfair treatment with the doctors of GB Pant hospital and Agartala Government Medical College as doctors associated with other state-run hospitals and health centres do not come under the purview of decision.
The decision has evoked mixed response and footfalls of patients in GB Pant hospital also recorded a spike in absence of the doctors in private chambers.