Do doctors need a Central protection Act?

Highlights:

• The rape and murder of a young doctor at R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on August 9. The protests started after the discovery of the doctor’s body in the seminar room of the emergency building where she had been working.
• As per constitutional provisions, health and law and order are State subjects, and, therefore, it is the primary responsibility of the State government or Union Territory administration to take note of events and eventualities and do what is necessary to prevent violence.
• Those protesting in Delhi point out that medical colleges often have ill-lit corridors, poorly secured wards, and long distances between departments.
• Acc. to IMA, In a list of demands submitted to the Union government, it has sought hospital security protocols that are no less than those at an airport and that healthcare centres should be declared safe zones with mandatory security entitlements including CCTVs and deployment of security personnel.
• On August 16, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued an order that “in the event of any violence against any health care worker while on duty, the head of the institution shall be responsible for filing an institutional FIR within a maximum of six hours of the incident.

Prelims takeaway:

• IMA