New Delhi, Jan 2 (IANS): The Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Tuesday called off its 12-hour countrywide shutdown of OPD services at all private hospitals in the country, after the government agreed to its demand and sent the National Medical Commission Bill, 2017 to a select committee.

"We have called off the 12-hour strike as we have just been informed that the government has agreed to our demands and has sent the Bill to a select committee," K.K. Aggarwal, former president of IMA, told IANS.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) called for a 12-hour shutdown of all private hospitals in the country on Tuesday to protest the "anti-people and anti-patient" National Medical Commission (NMC) Bill, 2017, that seeks to replace the Medical Council of India (MCI).

The IMA has 2.77 lakh members, which includes Corporate Hospitals, Poly clinics and Nursing homes, across the country.

While private hospitals in other states followed IMA's call to keep OPDs shut for 12 hours, the national capital saw a mixed response.

Several big corporate hospitals, including Apollo, BLK Super specialty and Sir Ganga Ram among dozen others, preferred to keep their OPDs operational.