Congress MP Shashi Tharoor has announced that he has introduced a private bill in the Lok Sabha on Friday.
The Healthcare Personnel and Healthcare Institutions (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2023, if passed, he would like it to be called the Dr Vandana Das Act, after the young doctor who was murdered by a patient at a government hospital in Kerala's Kollam district, on April 10.
Meanwhile, the Kerala government on Saturday dismissed G Sandeep, the accused in the killing of a woman doctor Vandana Das at a hospital in Kollam district recently, from the post of school teacher.
General Education Minister V Sivankutty said Sandeep was dismissed from the service and has been disqualified for future appointments.
Sandeep, who was brought to the Taluk Hospital there by the police for medical treatment during the early hours of April 10, went on a sudden attacking spree using a pair of surgical scissors kept in the room where his leg injury was being dressed.
He had initially attacked the police officers and a person who had accompanied him to the hospital and then turned on the young doctor who could not escape from the assault. Das was stabbed several times and later succumbed to her injuries in a private hospital in Thiruvananthapuram where she was rushed following the attack.
Recently, several other incidents of doctors being assaulted by violent bystanders or patients were reported from the state prompting the government to issue an ordinance.
On May 23, Kerala Governor Arif Mohammed Khan had signed an ordinance that provides for stringent punishment, including imprisonment of up to seven years and a maximum fine of Rs 5 lakh for those found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm to those working in the health services sector in the state.
(With inputs from Online Desk)