To protest against the National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, healthcare services at government hospitals, including AIIMS, Safdarjung and RML in Delhi, may possibly hit severely as resident doctors have threatened to go on an indefinite strike, including withdrawal of services at emergency departments.

The bill, which seeks to replace the graft-tainted Medical Council of India (MCI), is scheduled to be tabled in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday after the Lok Sabha gave its affirmation on July 29.

Dr Sumedh Sandanshiv, president, Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), said, alleging that the bill was "anti-poor, anti-student and undemocratic". Resident doctors will abstain from working in OPDs, emergency departments and ICUs as a mark of protest on Thursday and the strike will continue for an indefinite period if the bill is listed and passed in the Rajya Sabha.

The Resident Doctors Associations (RDA) of the AIIMS, RML and some other hospitals have already given separate notices to the administration concerning the proposed strike. Agitations continued at various hospitals as doctors wore black badges to work protesting against the bill.

Several hospital authorities have issued a emergency plan for the smooth functioning of healthcare services as a part of which emergency services will function with the help of sponsored residents/pool officers and faculty members.

According to the contingency plan drawn by AIIMS, inpatient (General and Private) wards patient care services, Labour Room and Maternity Operation Theatre (OT) and support services will function normally and will be supervised by the concerned faculty of hospital administration. Though Out Patient Department (OPD), dialysis, radio-diagnosis and laboratory diagnosis services are scheduled to function on a limited basis, routine operation theatre services will largely remain adjourned on Friday, as per the authorities.

Emergency cases of operations will be taken up as per requirement whereas for routine OT services patients will be taken up for surgery as per feasibility and mutual agreement between the concerned faculty of surgery and anesthesiology.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA), also expressed reservations over several sections of the bill and had given a call for a 24-hour withdrawal of non-essential services on Wednesday. The largest body of doctors and medical students in the country with around three lakh members, the IMA had also called for demonstrations and hunger strikes at its local branches and had insisted students to boycott classes.

On Tuesday, at a joint meeting of representatives of the FORDA, the URDA and the RDA-AIIMS held, it was decided to oppose the NMC Bill, 2019 in its existing form. The provisions of the said bill might promote gross incompetence and mockery of the professionals currently working day and night and sacrificing their youth for this wrecked system.

The AIIMS RDA, the FORDA and the Untied-RDA said in a joint statement, “If it is tabled in its existing form in the Rajya Sabha without any modifications, the medical fraternity across the country will be forced to resort to extreme measures that may hamper the healthcare services nationwide. We will withdraw from essential and non-essential services from the hospitals for an indefinite period,"

The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha on Monday even as thousands of doctors protested against it across the country. It will provide for the development of a National Medical Commission in place of the MCI for the development and regulation of all aspects of medical education, profession and institutions.

The medical fraternity claims that the bill will encourage quackery. They are objecting to section 45 of the bill, which, claims, empowers the Union government to outweigh any suggestion of the National Medical Commission.

Also, the IMA is opposing the decision to introduce NEXT by scrapping the NEET-PG and regulating the fees by the NMC for 50 per cent seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities.

The bill proposes a common final-year MBBS examination, known as the National Exit Test (NEXT), for admission to post-graduate medical courses and for procurement of a license to practice medicine.