The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Bill, 2020 (NCAH Act) was passed by Parliament recently after a long and anxious wait, particularly by health professionals. The landmark law is expected to recognise the skills of over 56 types of frontline health workers, increase their employment opportunities and enhance their true worth within India and globally. Let’s look closely into the key points of the Bill.
As the number of COVID-19 cases surges across the nation, the front-line healthcare workers who are at the forefront of the battle against coronavirus are now at the receiving end. Reports on doctors and healthcare professionals getting infected with COVID-19 has taken up a permanent spot among the daily news. The spike in infection rate among medical professionals can be attributed to several factors such as low quality of the available PPE to overexposure at the workplace. Even though the Centre hasn’t revealed any actual statistics, several doctors are getting infected by the coronavirus on a day to day basis. To make things worse, some of the so-called ‘invincible heroes’ have already succumbed to the disease during the course of action. Even when the society attributes superhero powers to healthcare workers, when it comes to ground reality, every healthcare worker is at the bleeding edge of the pandemic.