BELAGAVI: Private hospital doctors across the state formally decided to withdraw their agitation on Friday evening after the state government agreed to dilute the proposed Karnataka Private Medical Establishment Amendment Bill -2017, that is expected to be tabled in the legislative assembly on Monday. The development comes as relief to thousands of patients in strike-hit hospitals across Karnataka. Services such as outpatient departments, emergencies, surgeries and routine procedures were particularly affected.Though doctors had withdrawn the strike at outpatient departments on Thursday, after the Karnataka high court warned of action and the state government agreed to hold talks, they had continued a sitin and hunger strike in Belagavi, where the winter session of legislature is on. "We held fruitful negotiations with representatives from various medical associations and allayed all their fears and apprehensions. The government agreed to concede some of their demands and rejected a few," chief minister Siddaramaiah announced after talks at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha Health minister K R Ramesh Kumar and a host of senior officials were present.Siddaramaiah, however, declined to disclose the changes they agreed to make in the proposed bill. "You will come to know the changes when we table the Bill next week," the CM said. Kumar maintained that they agreed to bring in some minor amendments and incorporate some demands of doctors when they frame rules, once the KPME bill gets governor Vajubhai Vala's assent. Doctors' representatives, who attended the meeting, said the government has agreed to reduce stiff penalty clauses and continue the jail term for erring doctors as it was in the Bill framed in 2007 by the JD(S)-BJP government. They warned of action and the state government agreed to hold talks, they had continued a sitin and hunger strike in Belagavi, where the winter session of legislature is on. "We held fruitful negotiations with representatives from various medical associations and allayed all their fears and apprehensions.The government agreed to concede some of their demands and rejected a few," chief minister Siddaramaiah announced after talks at Suvarna Vidhana Soudha. Health minister K R Ramesh Kumar and a host of senior officials were present. Siddaramaiah, however, declined to disclose the changes they agreed to make in the proposed bill. "You will come to know the changes when we table the Bill next week," the CM said.Kumar maintained that they agreed to bring in some minor amendments and incorporate some demands of doctors when they frame rules, once the KPME bill gets governor Vajubhai Vala's assent. Doctors' representatives, who attended the meeting, said the government has agreed to reduce stiff penalty clauses and continue the jail term for erring doctors as it was in the Bill framed in 2007 by the JD(S)-BJP government. They also agreed to remove supreme powers of the district redressal committee and turn it into a grievance cell. Most importantly, the government is learnt to have agreed to cap prices only for patients who avail treatment through the state government's ambitious Universal Health Scheme. Hinting at that, Siddaramaiah said the government had deferred the UHS scheme as they wanted to integrate it with the KPME Act.

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