Amid the ongoing protests by private doctors, the Congress-led Rajasthan government on Tuesday passed the Rajasthan Right to Health (RTH) Bill-2022 in the state assembly by a voice vote even as the state health minister health minister Parsadi Lal Meena reiterated the government’s “commitment in providing healthcare services to people”.
Rajasthan is the first state to bring in such kind of a bill.
Confirming the same, principal secretary, health, Dr Prithvi, who is a trained public health expert from John Hopkins University, USA said: “Rajasthan is not only the first state in India but in Asia also to bring such a bill.”
According to the provisions of the bill, people of Rajasthan will now be entitled for emergency care in private hospitals without any pre-payment. The requisite fees will be reimbursed by the government, if the patient is unable to pay, as per the bill.
According to the bill, the patient seeking emergency treatment such as in case of accidents, snake or animal bite and any other emergency decided by the state health authority will be treated, without prepayment of requisite fee, by public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centres, qualified to provide such treatment.
No health care provider shall delay treatment merely on the grounds of receiving police clearance or a police report, the bill states.
If patient does not pay requisite charges, healthcare provider shall be entitled to receive the requisite fee and charges or proper reimbursement from state government, states the Bill.
Any person who knowingly contravenes any provision of this act or any rule made thereunder shall be punishable with a fine up to ₹10,000 for the first contravention, and up to ₹20,000 for the subsequent contraventions.
Meanwhile, reacting to the development, health minister Parsadi Lal Meena said: “The government is committed to providing healthcare facilities to the people of the state and the bill is in the interest of the public.”
There have been complaints that some private hospitals do not treat patients under the Chiranjeevi health insurance scheme despite the patient having the Chiranjeevi card and therefore the bill was brought, he said while replying to the debate on the bill.
“The state is becoming a model state in the field of health and 7% of the budget is being spent on the health sector. ‘Right to health’ is in the interest of the public. The state government had sent this bill to the select committee on the basis of the suggestion of all the members. The suggestions of all the members and doctors have been included in the bill,” said Meena.
He said the first religion of doctors is to treat, which they should fulfil. The state government has provided land to big hospitals at a concessional rate, he said. There is a provision to link these hospitals under the Right to Health Bill.
Commenting on the agitation by private doctors, the minister said that all the suggestions have been accepted in the report of the select committee, be it of the committee members or doctors.
“Doctors are agitating despite their suggestions being accepted. This is not justified. They are demanding withdrawal of the bill, is it justified?” he asked.
After the reply, the House passed the bill by voice vote.
The bill was introduced in the assembly in September last year but it was sent to the select committee. The committee gave its report and the bill was amended accordingly and the bill as amended by the committee was passed on Tuesday.
Commenting on the bill, deputy leader of opposition in Rajasthan assembly Rajendra Rathore said, “We want the RTH to come… but in a practical manner… all the stakeholders should be taken together.”
He suggested that RTH should be implied to hospitals, which are 50 bed multispecialty hospitals as they “have all kinds of facilities”; the designated hospitals should be defined; and there should be a single window for grievance redressal.
Raising the issue of reimbursement, BJP leader Jogeshwar Garg said that it gets delayed by years, and that “the stakeholders should be taken in faith before bringing such a bill.”
BJP MLA Deepti Maheshwari said the emergency care needs to be defined further in the act, and there is no mention of patient-doctor conflict.
Meanwhile, earlier in the day, condemning police action on doctors, the opposition BJP staged a walkout during the Zero Hour.
Private hospital owners and doctors from Rajasthan who took to the streets of Jaipur on Monday, demanding withdrawal of the “draconian” Right to Health Bill were lathicharged by police.
During the Zero Hour, Rajendra Rathore also raised the issue. “The police latticharge on doctors is condemnable, even women were beaten. They weren’t heard properly. The incident should be judicially probed,” he said.
In another incident, CPI MLA Girdhari Lal was evicted by the House marshal when he tried speaking on crop loss instead of the issue listed by him.
