Empty corridors, absence of blue-uniformed staff, barely one or two patients at the cash counter – that’s how 45,000 private hospitals, diagnostic centres, and clinics in Bengaluru looked on Friday, 3 November.

This was because private hospitals, with the support of the Indian Medical Association (IMA), called for a 12-hour strike in Karnataka, demanding that the state government withdraw the proposed amendment to the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (KPME) Act 2007. The amendment empowers the government to fix rates for medical procedures in private hospitals, prohibit all additional charges and advance payments, as well as penalise those violating the new rules.