Health ministry approves 25 per cent boost in security deployment at Central hospitals

The Union health ministry has allowed enhancement of security deployment by 25 per cent at all Union government hospitals, officials said, amid protests by resident doctors demanding a Central law following the alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at a Kolkata hospital.

Officials said 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 R.G. 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 also said 26 states and Union Territories including West Bengal, Uttarakhand, Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra, Assam, Karnataka and Kerala have passed legislation to protect healthcare personnel. 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 R.G. Kar case which was not a patient-doctor violence incident, will not make any huge difference," an official source said.

They said they have held meetings with some Residents Doctors' Associations and have explained these aspects to them too. More so, a committee will be constituted under the chairmanship of directorate general of health services (DGHS) to look into various aspects of security and facilities at hospitals for residents like duty room, 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, causing difficulties for patients.

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 includes a Central law to check violence against healthcare personnel and declaring hospitals safe zones, like airports, with mandatory security entitlements.

Late Sunday, the resident doctors here announced that their strike will continue and decided to provide elective OPD services in around 36 specialities, including medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, paediatrics, ophthalmology and orthopedics, to patients outside Nirman Bhawan on Monday.

They said emergency services will continue as before at hospitals.