Medical services like out-patient care and elective surgeries in government-run and private hospitals across India were crippled on August 17 as doctors went on a day-long nationwide strike to protest the brutal sexual assault and murder of a resident doctor while she was on duty at the Radha Gobinda Kar Medical College and Hospital, Kolkata, on the night of August 8. The local police arrested a hospital volunteer for the crime but resident doctors were not satisfied and went on strike demanding a thorough probe. While supporting the demand of resident doctors, Indian Medical Association (IMA) also sought long-term measures to ensure the safety of healthcare professionals and gave a call for a national strike. Meanwhile, the Calcutta High Court, while hearing a petition filed by the slain doctor’s parents, directed that the case investigation be transferred to the federal agency, Central Bureau of Investigation, following allegations of poor handling by the local police. As the street protests were on, a violent mob attacked the Kolkata hospital on the night of August 14 and vandalised key facilities, which further aggravated the confrontation between resident doctors and the authorities.
The incident has brought into focus poor working conditions for health workers as well as a growing threat of violence against them. Large public hospitals in India are often overcrowded and resident doctors as well as nursing staff are overworked. They have no proper places to rest after long hours of duty or have access to basic facilities like clean toilets and hygienic canteens. The junior doctor, who worked in the chest medicine department, was taking rest on a makeshift bed in the seminar room during her 36-hour shift when she was attacked, raped, and killed. “She passed away under extremely suspicious circumstances while on duty and the incident occurred within the hospital premises. The circumstances surrounding her death are deeply troubling,” the IMA Junior Doctors Network wrote to the Police Commissioner of Kolkata on August 9.
In response to the killing, the National Medical Commission, the medical regulatory authority, released an advisory asking medical colleges to ‘develop a policy for safe work environment within the college and hospital campus for medical staff including faculty, student and resident doctors.’ Corridors and campus should be well-lit in the evening for the staff to walk safely from one place to another and sensitive areas should be under CCTV surveillance, the regulator said. The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare issued an order making the head of the institution responsible for registering a police complaint within six hours of any incidence of violence against health workers while on duty.
However, IMA has demanded a comprehensive law to deal with attacks on doctors. ‘The lack of security led to a heinous crime such as rape and murder in the premises of a large hospital in a metropolitan city. After this, a mob attacked the hospital’s emergency room, even going up to the seminar hall, which is the crime site. If this can happen in a tertiary care centre in a big city, then how can women doctors be safe in a district hospital or a rural centre? Therefore, we are demanding that hospitals be declared safe zones, much like airports, and a law to deal with violence against medical personnel. The two are inter-linked issues,’ IMA national president R V Asokan told The Lancet. He said a central law on violence against doctors is the first critical step because the existing state-level legislations were ineffective in acting as a deterrence against violence. As many as 25 states have laws covering attacks on doctors but practically there has been no conviction.’
Read the full report here in The Lancet
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