Rajasthan CM calls on doctors to stop protest against Right to Health Bill

Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot on Saturday appealed to doctors protesting the Right to Health Bill passed by the Assembly earlier this week to stop their protest.

The Chief Minister directed the Chief Secretary to hold a meeting with the protesting doctors on Saturday evening to try to end their protest.

Gehlot said that the bill takes into account the interests of doctors and their concerns are unfounded.

Doctors who run hospitals and clinics have expressed fears that the bill will increase bureaucratic interference in their work and have demanded its repeal.

Meanwhile, doctors broke up a protest in Jaipur on Saturday.

According to the Rajasthan Right to Health Bill, passed by the Assembly on Tuesday, every resident of the state will have the right to emergency treatment and care “without prepayment” at any “government health facility, health facility and designated health centres”.

Before the bill was amended on the recommendations of the select committee, the draft referred to “any health care provider, facility or establishment, including a private provider, facility or facility, public health agency, medical facility and designated health centers qualified as such.”

As amended by the bill, “designated health centers” means health centers covered by rules yet to be developed.

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