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Health & Medicine
Mahesh

18/08/24 11:35 AM IST

Do doctors need a Central protection Act?

In News
  • Resident doctors across India are on strike demanding laws that ensure their safety while on duty.
Constitutional Provisions
  • As per constitutional provisions, health and law and order are State subjects, and, therefore, it is the primary responsibility of the State government or Union Territory administration to take note of events and eventualities, and do what is necessary to prevent violence.
  • The Union government has admitted that details of the number of fatalities of medical professionals due to attacks by families of patients are not maintained centrally. 
  • Violence against healthcare workers at the workplace is not new in India.
  • In 1973, Aruna Ramchandra Shanbaug working as a junior nurse at King Edward Memorial Hospital, Mumbai, was sexually assaulted by a hospital sweeper.
  • She died in 2015 after spending over 41 years in a vegetative state following the attack. Years later, doctors and other healthcare workers continue to demand specific and basic safety measures at hospitals including improved lighting, increased security, and installation of properly monitored security cameras. 
  • There is an urgent need to improve working and living conditions by ensuring proper lighting, security guards, cameras, and manned walk-throughs between departments, operation theatres, and emergency areas.
  • These simple measures could make a real difference,” explain doctors.
  • This incident is a wake-up call. Doctors, particularly junior doctors working night shifts, and nurses — whether female or male — are increasingly under threat, not just physically but mentally as well.
  • There is growing concern about their safety, lives, and mental health.
Measures
  • Violence against healthcare workers is a global issue, but several countries have implemented effective measures to protect their medical professionals, setting examples that India could follow.
  • The U.K.’s NHS enforces a zero-tolerance policy on violence, supported by a dedicated security team and a comprehensive reporting system.
  • In the U.S., some States classify assaults on healthcare workers as felonies, acting as a strong deterrent.
  • Australian hospitals have introduced safety measures like security personnel, panic buttons, and mandatory de-escalation training. India must urgently introduce a Central protection Act and adopt similar measures to take stringent actions to ensure a safer environment for its healthcare workers.
Doctors demand
  • The Indian Medical Association (IMA), a national level association of allopathic doctors, maintained that at a policy level, the reluctance to acknowledge the violence on doctors at healthcare centres has to change.
  • In a list of demands submitted to the Union government, it has sought hospital security protocols that are no less than those at an airport and that healthcare centres should be declared safe zones with mandatory security entitlements including CCTVs and deployment of security personnel.
  • The victim was on a 36-hour duty shift, and had no safe space to rest.
  • The working and living conditions of resident doctors need a complete overhaul.
  • The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued an order that “in the event of any violence against any health care worker while on duty, the head of the institution shall be responsible for filing an institutional FIR within a maximum of six hours of the incident.’’
  • The order was issued in view of the fact that violence has become common against doctors and other healthcare staff in government hospitals.
  • “A number of health workers suffer physical violence during the course of their duty... most of this violence is done by either [the] patient or patient’s attendants
  • Meanwhile, earlier this week, the National Medical Commission (NMC) directed all medical colleges to develop a policy for a safe work environment within the college and hospital campus for all staff members.
  • It also said any incident of violence against medical students should be promptly investigated by the college management and an FIR should be lodged.
  • A detailed action taken report on any incident of violence should invariably be sent to the NMC within 48 hours of the incident.
Source- The Hindu

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