Heads of health institutes will have to file an FIR within 6 hours in case of violence against a health care worker on duty: Govt
New Delhi, August 16
The government on Friday said heads of health institutions will have to file an FIR within six hours in case of an incident of violence against a health care worker on duty, amid escalating protests across the country over the alleged rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor at a state-run hospital in Kolkata.
Following a call by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency and OPD services, more medics from public as well as private health facilities joined protests against last week's incident at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, demanding justice for the victim and a central law to protect health care workers.
In Delhi, non-emergency and out-patient department (OPD) services remained hit for the fifth day in major hospitals, including AIIMS and Safdarjung, while a group of medics held a sit-in outside the Nirman Bhawan, which houses the Union health ministry.
Protest marches were taken out by resident doctors in several cities, including those in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat, while in Kolkata, police have arrested 25 people in connection with the Thursday early morning vandalism and violence at the hospital where students are demonstrating since August 9 following the alleged rape and murder incident.
Stating that the decision of the health ministry to form a panel for deliberating on a central law to protect health care workers as "too little and too late", IMA chief Dr R V Asokan told PTI that there is a draft Bill that was prepared in 2019 after stakeholders' consultation but it never went to Parliament. It just needs political will to bring a legislation on the matter, he said.
In an office memorandum to directors and medical superintendents of central government hospitals and principals of all medical colleges, the ministry said, "It is stated that in the event of any violence against any health care worker while on duty, the head of institutions shall be responsible for filing an institutional FIR within a maximum of six hours of the incident."
Recently, it has been observed that violence has become common against doctors and other health care staff in government hospitals, the memo said.
The political slugfest over the incident continued on Friday.
While West Bengal Chief Minister and TMC supremo Mamata Banerjee accused the opposition CPI(M) and the BJP in the state of orchestrating the vandalism at the hospital and attempting to obscure the truth by spreading fake news, the BJP demanded her resignation and accused her of undermining the core values of the Constitution.
