Centre Proposes Committee to Recommend Safety Measures for Healthcare Professionals

Manas Dasgupta

NEW DELHI, Aug 17: The Union Health Ministry on Saturday announced formation of a committee to propose all possible measures to ensure the safety of healthcare professionals. Representatives of all stakeholders, including the State governments, will be invited to share their suggestions with the committee, it added.

In a press release, the Health Ministry stated that a committee to suggest all possible measures for ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals would be formed. Representatives of all stakeholders including the State Governments will be invited to share their suggestions with the Committee.

The decision came after representatives of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), Indian Medical Association (IMA) and Resident Doctors’ Associations of Governmental Medical Colleges & Hospitals of Delhi met the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare in Delhi and put forth their demands.

The ministry has requested the doctors agitating across the country over the alleged rape and killing of a resident doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata to resume their duties in the larger public interest and in view of the rising number of dengue and malaria cases. The ministry said the Centre was sensitive to the safety demands. It said that 26 States have already passed legislation for protection of healthcare workers in their respective states.

Reacting to the development, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said it was studying the statement released by the health ministry assuring doctors of all possible efforts to ensure their safety and offering to form a committee to suggest measures for the same.

The IMA said it would respond to it after careful consideration of all aspects and consultations with its state branches. “IMA recalls an Office Memorandum dated March 23, 2017 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, GoI, co-signed by the ministry officials and IMA, assuring to explore the possibility to initiate the process to bring a central Act on the said issue in line with those in vogue in other states,” it said in a statement.

The nation has been shaken after a trainee doctor was brutally raped while on duty at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital on August 9. The medical fraternity across the nation is on streets on demanding the prompt action in the investigation. Junior doctors and medical students across the hospitals and medical colleges in Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad and other cities staged a protest demanding speedy justice.

The Kolkata Police have arrested Sanjay Roy, a civic volunteer, last week and was sent to 14-day police custody. The accused was charged under sections 64 (rape) and 103 (murder) of BNS and was produced before Sealdah court, which remanded him to police custody till August 23. The Calcutta High Court has handed over the case to the CBI for further investigation.

The IMA on Saturday also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “benign intervention” to bring a central law to check violence against healthcare personnel and declare hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements.

These are among the demands made by the apex doctors’ body in the backdrop of the alleged rape and murder of Kolkata incident and the subsequent vandalism at the facility.

All essential services are being maintained and casualty wards manned, the IMA said in a statement.

“The 36-hour shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces to rest and adequate restrooms warrant thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors,” it added.

It has also demanded that hospitals be declared as safe zones, with the first step being mandatory security entitlements.

“Security protocols at hospitals should be no less than at airports. Declaring hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements is the first step. CCTV cameras, deployment of security personnel and the protocols can follow,” the IMA said.

It has demanded a central act incorporating the 2020 amendments in the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 into the draft Healthcare Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019, saying it would strengthen the existing 25 state legislations.