Union Health Ministry to constitute panel to ensure safety of healthcare professionals

The Union Health Ministry on Saturday (August 17) assured healthcare professionals of all possible efforts to ensure their safety.

The assurance came on the day when doctors were on a nationwide strike in protest against the rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

In an official statement, the ministry said it will constitute a panel to suggest measures for ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals. The statement was released 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 ministry officials.

Stakeholders to be invited

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

IMA pushes for Central Act

Earlier, the IMA put forth several demands before the ministry, seeking a significant policy to address violence against doctors and hospitals. It 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.

“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,” the IMA said in a statement.

The IMA has sought a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of resident doctors. It has also called for a "meticulous and professional" investigation of the Kolkata horror in a specific time frame.

The doctors' body has also sought an appropriate and dignified compensation to the bereaved family commensurate with the cruelty inflicted.