RAJASTHAN ON Tuesday became the first state to pass in Assembly the Right to Health Bill, which gives every resident of the state the right to avail free Out Patient Department (OPD) services and In Patient Department (IPD) services at all public health facilities. Also, similar healthcare services will be provided free of cost at select private facilities.
The Bill was passed despite protests by the opposition BJP, which wanted to bring in certain changes to the provisions, as well as an agitation by a section of doctors, who have been demanding withdrawal of the legislation.
According to the Bill, free healthcare services, including consultation, drugs, diagnostics, emergency transport, procedure and emergency care, will be provided at all public health institutions and select private facilities subject to conditions specified in the rules, which will be formulated now.
Also, all residents will be entitled to emergency treatment and care for accidental emergency without prepayment of any fee or charges.
Importantly, in a case of medico-legal nature, no public or private hospital can delay treatment merely on the grounds of receiving police clearance. The legislation also says that “after emergency care, stabilisation and transfer of patient, if patient does not pay requisite charges, the healthcare provider shall be entitled to receive requisite fee and charges or proper reimbursement from the state government”.
The law extends a total of 20 rights to the residents of the state.
According to the government, the Bill intends “to provide protection and fulfilment of rights and equity in health and well-being under Article 47 (Duty of the state to raise the level of nutrition and the standard of living and to improve public health) of Constitution of India and to secure the Right to Health as per the expanded definition of Article 21 (Protection of life and personal liberty)”.
The Bill was tabled in the Assembly in September last year but was sent to the Select Committee following objections by the opposition BJP and the doctors.
During the debate on the Bill on Tuesday, the BJP’s opposition primarily centred on two points. It demanded that in case of private facilities, only multispecialty hospitals with 50 beds be included and that there should be a single forum for complaints.
BJP MLA Kalicharan Saraf said, “If a cardiac patient reaches an eye hospital, how will he get treatment? Hence we demand that only multispecialty hospitals with 50 beds be included under the law.”
Saraf and Deputy Leader of Opposition Rajendra Rathore – both of whom held health portfolio in the previous government and were part of the Select Committee for the Bill – demanded that the government incorporate these two points in the law.
On the demand for single window system for redress, Rathore said: “Right now, you can complain against the doctors with the Medical Council, Consumer Court, under the Medical Protection Act, with the Human Rights Commission … there are 50 places where you can complain against a doctor.”
Saraf said, “Now you are adding one more forum for complaints. Will the doctor practice or only occupy himself with redressal of complaints.”
Rashtriya Loktantrik MLA Narayan Beniwal said the Bill should be “circulated for the purpose of eliciting opinion” and the government should sit down with the protesting doctors and find a way.
CPI (M) MLA Girdharilal termed the move a historic step. “Only those doctors are protesting who shut down their private hospitals during Covid. I am not against doctors, but if a private hospital opposes it, it is wrong.”
Responding to the debate, state Health Minister Parsadi Lal said: “There is not one thing of the Select Committee that we did not agree with. We have only done what you asked us to. We also heard the objections of doctors and agreed to (resolve) them. The Bill is quite different from its previous version.”\
He said the 50-bed provision will be included in the rules formulated as part of the Act. On the doctors’ demand for withdrawing the Bill, he said: “It is not justified. It is an insult to the process of Assembly. It doesn’t happen in democracy…”
“We should rise above politics and concern ourselves with the people. The Bill is in the interest of the state,” he said.
Chhaya Pachauli and Dr Narendra Gupta of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, which has been instrumental in bringing the law, congratulated Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and welcomed the law. However, the JSA registered its “disappointment” that the doctors’ protests led to several amendments, some of which are “a matter of great concern as they substantially erode the accountability and grievance redressal mechanism under the Act” and is “extremely discriminatory” as it is “applicable only to the residents of Rajasthan”.
Rajasthan Assembly passed a bill that gives people the right to free emergency treatment at government hospitals and privately-run establishments. (File) 
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