Government Favors ESMA on Health Services
Patna: Dec. 5, 2007
With Bihar doctors bent on going on a statewide strike and junior doctors frequently resorting to such tactics to twist the government's arm to make their demands heard, the Nitish government has decided to invoke Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the state's health workers making it unlawful to disrupt Bihar's health services at the cost of patients' lives.
Health Minister Chandramohan Rai, while talking to reporters in Patna on Wednesday, said the state health department has sent a proposal to the Home Ministry to consider bringing health services under the scope of ESMA to prevent tragedies from taking place in hospitals and clinics across the state.
"Health services had dwindled in the state in last couple of decades. The NDA government is working extremely hard to improve the situation and will not allow a handful of people to derail the tremendous progress that this government has made in last couple of years," the minister said.
Rai also stuck to the government's demand of obtaining written promise from all the government doctors in the state saying they would not indulge in private practices.
"If the health associations agreed to this demand of the government, the government in turn will agree to change their wages based on the central pay scale," he said.
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