'Right To Health' In Rajasthan: Doctors Call Off Strike After Consensus Reached With Gehlot Government

The Chief Minister of Rajasthan has reported reaching an agreement with doctors protesting the Right to Health bill since around mid-March.

Ashok Gehlot announced on Twitter that Rajasthan, thus, becomes the first state to implement Right to Health.

He thanked and praised doctors after the strike was called off. "This cooperation and coordination of yours will become a new chapter in social security," Gehlot said in a tweet.

The bill, which passed in the Rajasthan Assembly on 21 March, gives every resident the right to free emergency treatment at public or designated private hospitals.

According to its provisions, every resident will have the right to emergency treatment and care "without prepayment" at any "public health institution, health care establishment and designated health care centres."

The move was, however, met immediately with opposition from private doctors, who demanded the bill's withdrawal.

Doctors feared the rise of bureaucratic interference in the functioning of private hospitals. They also feared being asked to absorb the cost of emergency healthcare services, although the state government had clarified that they would do so.

Questions were also raised about the impact of the bill on the quality of medical treatment delivered to the injured.

After about two weeks of protests, doctors are now calling off the strike, with healthcare facilities expected to return to normal operations, after the Rajasthan government reached a consensus with protesting doctors.

The Ashok Gehlot government's Right to Health law is significant politically as it comes ahead of the assembly elections due to be held in Rajasthan later this year.