Doctors raise demand for Protection Act in meeting with union DGHS
New Delhi: The union director general of health services met with representatives of doctors’ associations to come up with measures to prevent violence against healthcare providers
New Delhi: The union director general of health services met with representatives of doctors’ associations to come up with measures to prevent violence against healthcare providers. A central act making violence against healthcare worker punishable was suggested by the doctors and nurses present in the meeting.
A previous attempt in 2019 to draft a similar law that made violence against doctors punishable by up to 10 years imprisonment was stalled after home ministry said a special law was not feasible as health is a state subject.
Dr Sunil Kumar, the director general of health services, stressed on preventing overcrowding of patients and relatives, filling up of vacancies, and allowing nurses to optimise their work, according to the representatives of Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA) present in the meeting.
Dr Manish Kumar, president of Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association (FORDA) said, “Almost all the demands made by us, including the Central Act, was accepted in the meeting. We are waiting for the minutes of the meeting.”
This comes after the doctors held a nation-wide black ribbon protest in June after several instances of violence were highlighted. On June 1, a doctor posted at a Covid Care Centre in Assam was assaulted by the relatives of a patient who succumbed to the virus. On April 26, relatives of a deceased patient vandalised the emergency ward and injured several employees of Delhi’s Indraprastha Apollo hospital.
“Currently, 21 states have local laws but what we need is a strong central law to protect doctors from violence...,” the Indian Medical Association during the protest had said.