Centre’s Appeal To Doctors Amid Nationwide Protests Over Kolkata Horror

New Delhi:

Amid a nationwide strike by doctors in protest against the rape and murder of a doctor in Kolkata, the Union Health Ministry today assured them of all possible efforts to ensure their safety.

In an official statement, the Ministry said it will form a committee to suggest measures for ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals, an announcement that came over a week after the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata triggered widespread protests across the country.

The assurances came after the 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 officials of the health ministry.

“The associations have put forth their demands regarding their concern over the safety and security of healthcare workers at the workplace. The Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has heard the demands of the representatives and assured them of all possible efforts to ensure the security of healthcare professionals,” the ministry said in the statement.

“The representatives of all the associations were informed that the Government is well aware of the situation and is sensitive to their demands. It was observed that 26 states have already passed legislation for the protection of healthcare workers in their respective states,” the statement read.

Representatives of all stakeholders including the State Governments will be invited to share their suggestions with the Committee, it said.

The ministry also requested the agitating doctors to resume their duties in the “larger public interest” and in view of the rising cases of dengue and malaria.

5 Demands Of Doctors On Nationwide Strike

The IMA has put forth the following five demands:

1. It wants a significant policy to address violence against doctors and hospitals. The doctors’ body is pushing for a Central Act that would incorporate the amendments made in 2023 to the Epidemic Diseases Act of 1897 into the proposed Hospital Protection Bill of 2019. This move, it said, would strengthen the existing legislation in 25 states. The IMA has suggested that an ordinance similar to the one enacted during the COVID-19 pandemic would be appropriate in this situation.
2. The IMA has also demanded that hospitals be declared safe zones with the first step being mandatory security entitlements. “The security protocols of all hospitals should be no less than (that of) an airport. Declaring the hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements is the first step. CCTVs, deployment of security personnel, and the protocols can follow,” it said in the statement.
3. The IMA has demanded a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors, including the 36-hour duty shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces to take a rest.
4. The IMA has also called for a “meticulous and professional” investigation of the Kolkata horror in a specific time frame and rendering of justice besides identifying those involved in the vandalism of the hospital premises and awarding exemplary punishment.
5. The doctors’ body has also sought an appropriate and dignified compensation to the bereaved family commensurate with the cruelty inflicted.