24-hour-strike by private clinics, hospitals cripple healthcare in Odisha

Bhubaneswar, May 25
Thousands of private clinics, hospitals and diagnostic centres in Odisha remained closed on Friday, delaying surgeries, investigative procedures, treatments and emergency care throughout the state.
They downed their shutters in response to a 24-hour strike called by the All Odisha Private Medical Establishment Forum demanding several amendments to the act they say is hurting them.
The new rules notified a month ago made the conditions for registration of such clinic and hospitals stringent raising the hackles of their owners, who were already dissatisfied over the government delaying its nod to the applications of registration and making fire safety certification mandatory.
The Odisha Clinical Establishments (Control and Regulation) Act passed in 2016 in the aftermath of a devastating fire in Bhubaneswar's SUM Hospital that killed 26 people made it mandatory for all such clinics and hospitals to get fire safety certificates within six months.
The forum, the parent body of the owners of the 2,000-odd healthcare facilities, said that the strike call was a warning to the government to change the rules.
“More than 90% of such clinics in the state are unregistered due to the stringent standards. We feel the government is trying to clamp down on the hospitals through these rules. If the government does not renew the registration, we have no other way but to shut down. If we close them down, how will the public get the services?” asked Dr Ajoy Kumar Mishra, president of the forum.
He said private clinics and hospitals are particularly upset over the new rules making it mandatory for the hospitals to collect diagnostic fees as per Central Government Health Services (CGHS) rates.
“The government wants us to charge Rs 50 for consultation fee from each patient. Which specialist doctor in Odisha would take Rs 50 as consultation fee? The government wants us to charge Rs 1000 for MRI while government medical hospitals like AIIMS and SCB charges Rs 3000. How would we survive?” asked Mishra.