Health Ministry approves 25% enhancement in security deployment at central hospitals. Will it help?

According to a report by PTI, the Health Ministry has allowed the enhancement of security deployment by 25% at all union government hospitals, officials said.

This was amid protests by resident doctors demanding a central law following the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a Kolkata hospital.

Further, officials said that apart from the standard security protocol, the deployment of marshals would also be approved based on individual demands by government hospitals after they conduct their security assessment.

Official sources, however, said bringing a central law based on the RG Kar case "will not make any huge difference" as the alleged rape and murder of the junior doctor at the Kolkata facility was not a case of patient-doctor violence.

Crimes and rapes are already covered under existing laws, they said.

They further said that 26 states and Union Territories (UTs) including West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Assam, Karnataka and Kerala have passed legislation to protect healthcare personnel.

In addition to this, in all these states, these offences are cognisable and non-bailable.

"So, bringing in an ordinance or even a Central law, that too based on the RG Kar case which was not a patient-doctor violence incident, will not make any huge difference," an official source said.

They also said they have held meetings with a few Resident Doctors' Associations and have explained these aspects to them too.

Moreover, a committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of the Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) to look into various aspects of security and facilities at hospitals for residents like duty rooms, working hours and conditions, and canteen services.

"Hospitals being public facilities cannot be turned into a fortress. We have urged the doctors to call off their strike because patient care is getting affected," an official source said.

The ongoing doctors' strike in the national capital over the Kolkata incident completed a week on Sunday, August 18, leading to difficulties for patients.

Besides this, doctors across the country have been demanding quick enactment of a special law to deal with violence against healthcare personnel and implementation of improved safety protocols within medical facilities to ensure a secure working environment for all medics.

The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has also sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "benign" intervention in realising their demands that including a central law to check violence against healthcare personnel and declaring hospitals safe zones, like airports, with mandatory security entitlements.