Union Health Ministry assures Doctors of all possible efforts to ensure safety

New Delhi: The Union health ministry on Saturday said a committee will be formed to suggest all possible measures for ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals and urged the doctors agitating over the alleged rape and killing of a trainee doctor at the R.G. Kar Hospital in Kolkata to resume their duties. As the protests spread nationwide, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's "intervention" to bring a Central law to check violence at hospitals.

During a meeting with the representatives of the Federation of Resident Doctors' Association (FORDA), Indian Medical Association (IMA) and resident doctors' associations of government medical colleges and hospitals of Delhi in the wake of the Kolkata incident, the Union health minister assured them of constituting a committee to suggest all such possible measures for ensuring the safety of healthcare professionals.

"Representatives of all stakeholders, including the state governments, will be invited to share their suggestions with the committee," said the Union health ministry, adding that 26 states have already passed laws for the protection of healthcare workers.

Following the call of IMA to observe a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency services from 6 am on Saturday, the Resident doctors at government and private hospitals in different parts of the country, including Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Maharashtra, Haryana, West Bengal among others continued their protest demanding the safety for healthcare professionals at workplaces.

Meanwhile, in the national capital, as the strike entered its sixth day on Saturday, major private hospitals also joined the protest alongside government hospitals. Resident doctors in the national capital have been on an indefinite strike since Monday. Hospitals like Sir Ganga Ram, Fortis and Apollo have halted their OPD, elective surgeries and IPD services.

While the doctors’ protests spread across the nation, political parties and their leaders also carried out agitations. The BJP accused the West Bengal government of cracking down on doctors and a section of the media for demanding justice in the rape and murder case of a trainee doctor, terming it the "most sinister and institutional cover-up" to save the culprits.

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawalla claimed that the sole agenda of the chief minister Mamata Banerjee-led government is "silencing the truth, saving rapists and destroying evidence at any cost".

On Saturday, senior leaders of the Left Front and Congress took out a rally in Kolkata protesting the murder of the doctor R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital last week and the alleged failure of the West Bengal government to ensure the safety of women.

Left Front chairman Biman Bose alleged that "TMC-sheltered goons" were behind the vandalisation of the hospital to divert focus from a mass movement demanding justice for the doctor.

"We demand the resignation of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who also holds the home and health portfolios," he said.

Demanding exemplary punishment for those involved in the rape and murder of a woman postgraduate trainee doctor at the Kolkata hospital, the Trinamul Congress also took out rallies in different parts of the state, alleging "conspiracy hatched by the Left and the BJP to destabilise West Bengal".

As doctors in Jharkhand also joined the IMA's nationwide call for the withdrawal of non-emergency services, chief minister Hemant Soren condemned the alleged rape and murder and appealed to the protesting medics to return to work for the sake of the patients.

Karnataka health minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said a meeting has been called on August 20 to discuss the steps to be taken to ensure the safety and security of doctors, nurses and all the staff working in hospitals across the state.

Amid the nationwide protests, the IMA, which called for a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency services beginning at 6 am on Saturday, wrote to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention.

The IMA letter read: "Security protocols at hospitals should be no less than at airports. Declaring hospitals as safe zones with mandatory security entitlements is the first step. CCTV cameras, deployment of security personnel and the protocols can follow."

The doctors' body also called for a timebound investigation of alleged rape and murder of a trainee doctor at the state-run R.G. Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata and rendering of justice, besides identifying those involved in the vandalism and exemplary punishment for those involved.