The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has called on Union Health Minister J P Nadda to introduce a bespoke central law to prevent assaults on doctors and designate hospitals as safe havens, following the recent rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee in Kolkata.
The IMA's demands, which include - defined security protocols, come as resident doctors across the country staged protests and strikes on Monday, highlighting the pressing issue of medical staff safety in the workplace.
The Association said that 25 states have laws on attacks on doctors and hospitals but these are mostly ineffective on the ground and do not serve the purpose of deterrence.
"The absence of a special central enactment is one of the reasons. We kindly request you to reconsider introducing the Draft Legislation "The Healthcare Service Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of violence and damage to property) Bill, 2019, incorporating the amendments in the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897, approved and passed by the Parliament in Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020," the IMA said.
The 2019 bill drafted by the Health Ministry to check violence against doctors and other healthcare professionals was put on the back burner after the Home Ministry stated that there was no need for a separate law in this regard.
The draft bill had provisions to punish people who assault on-duty doctors and other healthcare professionals by imposing a jail term of up to 10 years.
The IMA had on Saturday given a 48-hour ultimatum to authorities to arrest the culprits in the Kolkata case and warned of a nationwide stir.
"This crime is an index of the anarchy and insecurity prevailing in the campus. IMA HQs mourns the death of this precious daughter of India and condemns the existing situations that enabled this crime to be committed with impunity inside the campus.
"If safety and security cannot be ensured in the citadels of learning, it only indicates the incompetence of the administration," the IMA said in the letter on Monday.
The IMA also sought an appointment with Nadda. The Association in the letter said that the doctors of this country have been suffering for the past few decades due to the violence unleashed on them.
"Pedestrian working conditions, inhuman workload, and violence in the workplace are the reality. Doctors take huge stress on themselves. Doctors deserve better consideration from the governments. The murder of this young lady doctor is not the first neither it would be the last if corrective measures are not taken," it said.
The doctors' body also questioned why hospitals have not been declared safe zones.
"We can never fathom out why our airports are safe zones with three-layer security while hospitals are given a pause. Neither do we understand why violence on airline staff and their work disruptions deserve special legislations while doctors and hospitals are expected to fend for themselves," the letter said.
The IMA demanded that hospitals across the country should be declared as safe zones. "Law should define the entitlement of the term safe zone," it said.
All major government hospitals should have police camps and adequate security personnel and similar security arrangements should be made mandatory in large private hospitals, it said.
Besides, it said that CCTV cameras in vulnerable points should be made compulsory.
From the West Bengal state government, the IMA demanded an impartial thorough investigation into the case and punishment to the culprits, besides a detailed inquiry into the conditions enabling the crime.
"IMA had given an ultimatum of two days on the above demands. IMA HQs is in consultation with the state branches on further action in this regard," it said.
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