Resident doctors had recently protested over the issue, demanding a central law in view of the recent rape and murder of a trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital. Accepting the long-standing demand for increased security, the health ministry has approved 25% more marshals for all central government hospitals. Officials said the deployment of marshals other than the sets of standard security measures will be decided according to specific requirements coming from hospitals post their own security reviews.
Sources quoted by PTI mentioned that there had been views that enactment of any central law on the lines of the China model, on such incidents, may not be much effective since the present one was not a case of patient-doctor violence. These sources said that 26 states and Union territories, ranging from West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana and Maharashtra to Assam, Karnataka and Kerala, have enacted laws for the protection of healthcare personnel and making such offences cognizable and non bailable.
The measure outlined an official source who supposedly said, “So, bringing in an ordinance or even a central law, that too based on the RG Kar case which was not a patient-doctor violence incident, will not make any huge difference.”
In this regard, the officials have already had meetings with a number of the Residents’ Doctors’ Associations. A committee, under the chairmanship of the DGHS, would also be formed for the review of different aspects related to hospital security and facilities for residents, including duty rooms, working condition, and facilities at the canteen service.
“Hospitals being public facilities cannot be turned into a fortress. We have urged the doctors to call off their strike as the patient care is getting affected,” an official source added.
Meanwhile, doctors across the country have asked the government to bring some special law to address the issue and improve safety measures to ensure a secure working environment in the medical facilities.