Profile of members of national task force formed by SC on doctors' safety

The task force, comprising senior doctors, has been tasked to develop a national protocol to ensure the safety and facilities for health care workers at their workplaces

Amid nationwide protests by doctors over the rape and murder of a 31-year-old resident doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, the Supreme Court (SC), which took suo motu cognisance of the case, constituted a 10-member national task force (NTF) on Tuesday.

The task force, comprising senior doctors, has been tasked with developing a national protocol to ensure the safety and facilities for healthcare workers at their workplaces. It has also been ordered to formulate effective recommendations and prepare a national action plan for preventing gender-based violence and ensuring safe and dignified working conditions for interns, resident doctors, and non-resident doctors. Some of the doctors have previously worked on national guidelines for the management of congenital heart disease and thrombolysis in stroke, respectively. Sanket Koul writes:

 

Core Members:

1. Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin, AVSM, VSM
 

Commissioned into the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune, in 1985, Surgeon Vice Admiral Arti Sarin specialises in radiation oncology and holds the rare distinction of serving in all three branches of the Indian Armed Forces. She has also trained in gamma knife surgery at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania.

Only the sixth woman ever to hold a three-star rank in the armed forces, Surgeon Vice Admiral Sarin has also served as Director and Commandant of the AFMC and Director General of Medical Services (Air).

She is currently serving as the Director General of Medical Services (Navy).

She has been awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal (VSM) and Ati Vishisht Seva Medal (AVSM) for her services to the armed forces.

2. Dr D Nageshwar Reddy

Dr D Nageshwar Reddy is currently the Chairman of the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology and AIG Hospitals, Hyderabad. He is also the past president of the World Endoscopy Organization.

A Padma Bhushan and Padma Shri awardee, Dr Reddy specialises in gastroenterology and worked as a professor of gastroenterology in Andhra Pradesh University of Health Sciences before setting up the Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, a tertiary care gastrointestinal (GI) speciality hospital.

3. Dr M Srinivas

Dr M Srinivas currently serves as the Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi, after succeeding Dr Randeep Guleria in 2022.

He has previously served as Dean of Hyderabad’s Employees State Insurance Company (ESIC) Hospital and Medical College. He has also been a member of AIIMS Delhi’s faculty as a professor in the department of paediatric surgery.

4. Dr Pratima Murthy

Dr Pratima Murthy is presently Director and a senior professor of psychiatry at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bangalore.

She has earlier been head of the department of psychiatry and head of the Centre for Addiction Medicine at NIMHANS. She has also served as a consultant to prominent international agencies such as the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and the World Health Organisation (WHO).

5. Dr Goverdhan Dutt Puri

Currently serving as the Executive Director of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jodhpur, Dr Goverdhan Dutt Puri was also the head of the department of anaesthesia and intensive care at the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), Chandigarh.

6. Dr Saumitra Rawat

A gastroenterologist by speciality, Dr Rawat is currently serving as the Chairperson of the Institute of Surgical Gastroenterology, GI and HPB Onco-Surgery, and Liver Transplantation at Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, Delhi.

He is also a member of the hospital’s board of management and a member of the Court of Examiners at the Royal College of Surgeons, England.

7. Dr Anita Saxena

Currently serving as the Vice-Chancellor of Pandit B D Sharma Medical University, Rohtak, Dr Saxena has worked to formulate and publish national guidelines for the management of congenital heart disease in India.

Dr Saxena has been frequently invited as an expert group member by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for the formulation of policies and guidelines related to the speciality of cardiology.

She has formerly served as Dean of Academics, Chief of the Cardiothoracic Centre, and Head of the department of cardiology at AIIMS, New Delhi.

8. Dr Pallavi Saple

Dean, Grant Medical College and Sir J J Group of Hospitals, Mumbai. An alumnus of Byculla's J J Hospital, Dr Pallavi Saple became one of the youngest deans to take over the reins of the 174-year-old institute in September 2019. She was 47 then. A paediatrician by training, she had headed the Government Medical College in Miraj for three years. She graduated from the Grant Medical College attached to J J Hospital in 1995. She pursued her post-graduation from the same institute, before joining as a faculty member in 1999. In an interview with a news publication, Saple had said in 2019, "My choices and decisions as an institute head mostly depend on two things essentially, whether it's going to benefit patients and whether it will help students."

9. Dr Padma Srivastava

Currently serving as the Chairperson of Neurology at Paras Health in Gurugram, Dr Srivastava has been instrumental in shaping national guidelines for thrombolysis in stroke and designing stroke registries aimed at improving care and prevention strategies.

She has formerly served as the Head of the department of neurology and Chief of the Neurosciences Centre at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi.

She was awarded the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 2016 for her contribution in the field of healthcare and public service.

Ex-officio members:

1. Cabinet Secretary to the Government of India

2. Union Home Secretary

3. Union Health Secretary

4. Chairperson, National Medical Commission (NMC)

5. President, National Board of Examiners (NBE)