'Declare hospitals as safe zones, give compensation to victim's family'

All hospitals across the country should be declared safe zones like airports so that doctors can work without fear, Indian Medical Association (IMA) chief Dr R V Asokan said on Friday.

This is one of the five demands of the IMA, which has declared a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency medical services (from 6 am on Saturday to 6 am on Sunday) to protest against the alleged rape and killing of a trainee woman doctor and vandalism at a state-run medical college in Kolkata.

"Airports are safe zones with a three-layer security, so at least in major hospitals, there has to be a security protocol and they should be declared as safe zones as that will entitle them for a mandatory security protocol," Asokan told PTI.

Secondly, there should be a central law to check violence on healthcare workers, he said.

Asokan said 25 states have laws against attacks on doctors and hospitals but there have been no convictions so far. These laws are mostly ineffective on the ground and do not serve the purpose of deterrence, he added.

"We request the government to reconsider introducing the draft Healthcare Service Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019, incorporating the amendments in the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897 as approved and passed by Parliament in the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020," Asokan said.

The IMA has also demanded that the family of the victim in the Kolkata incident be given a decent and dignified compensation.

"One of our demands is that decent and dignified compensation should be provided to the victim's family, commensurate with the nature of the crime," Asokan said.

He said the IMA also demands a decent investigation, time-bound prosecution as well as appropriate punishment for the culprits.

And the fifth and final demand of the doctors' body is regarding the working hours and working conditions of the resident doctors, Asokan said.

"This resident doctor (the Kolkata victim) was on duty for 36 straight hours. Is this correct? For how many hours do you want a doctor to be on duty? It will be humanly possible for eight hours or 12 hours, but to deploy a doctor for 36 hours? Mistakes are bound to happen. It is neither good for the patients nor for the doctors," he said.