Doctors across Nepal have gone on an indefinite strike from Friday to exert pressure on the Government to withdraw a decision they say will make them liable for death or injury to patients that results from their negligence.

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Early this week, a cabinet meeting directed the Ministry of Health and Population to ‘address issues relating to independent investigation, personal and professional insurances and compensation in the case of deaths of or damages to patients due to sheer negligence of doctors’.

Although the Government decision is vague, and could be dubbed unnecessary because the guidelines of the Nepal Medical Education (NME) have already addressed these issues, doctors are alarmed that it could be used against them.

The NME issued a 72-hour ultimatum for the Government to withdraw its decision, which it ignored. As a result, doctors closed the out-patient departments (OPDs) of hospitals from Friday morning.

Patients, caught off guard by the medical strike, are returning without treatment from the OPDs.

The agitating doctors have also sought a stricter law against those who attack them and vandalise hospitals after the unexpected deaths of patients. They want a law that does not allow the court to release hospital vandals on bail.

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