Patients have been left distressed at hospitals across the country as doctors have suspended non-emergency services, in protest against the recent verdicts by the Consumer Court penalising hospitals and doctors for medical negligence.
The Nepal Medical Association (NMA), the umbrella organisation of doctors, announced the protest after an emergency meeting of its Executive Committee on Friday, July 4. The association said the court's decisions were demoralising and had created an unsafe working environment for medical professionals.
As part of the protest, NMA’s branch offices submitted memoranda to Chief District Officers on Friday. On Sunday, doctors staged an hour-long sit-in at hospitals across the country.
On Monday, doctors boycotted all services except emergency care. The association plans to collect doctors’ signatures and their Nepal Medical Council certificates through its branches and send them to its central office in Kathmandu.
On Tuesday, the certificates will be returned to the Nepal Medical Council in a symbolic act of protest, the association said in a statement last Friday.
In a separate protest earlier in late April, the association had also directed doctors to halt services to pressure private medical colleges on stipend-related demands.
