THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: There has been no conviction in hospital attack cases in the last decade even after the specific law to curb violence against health professionals was brought in. The Health Service Persons and Healthcare Services Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act 2012, came into effect after a series of protests by doctors. But the doctors are disappointed as the present law cannot protect them from attacks. They blamed the weak provisions and the tacit understanding of enforcement agencies with the perpetrators for helping the latter walk away with impunity.
The attacks are often justified as emotional outbursts of patients or bystanders. Such thinking gets reinforced when political leaders support the attacks, according to doctors. Various doctors’ organisations took exception to the comment made by K B Ganesh Kumar, the Kerala Congress (B) MLA, in the assembly that some doctors deserved to be beaten up. The comment was made in March. Some of them wanted the Kottarakara MLA to be booked for inciting violence, in the wake of Wednesday’s incident.
“Doctors have become soft targets. A young girl has been stabbed because the attacker knew that there would not be any resistance from her. Only a strong law could make a difference,” said the state president of the Indian Medical Association, Dr Sulphi N.
He said he has been demanding a stricter law as an IMA representative for the past 24 years. “The present law was the result of a lot of protests. But what we got was a watered-down law,” he said. A section of doctors also think that no law, however stringent it may be, could make a difference when the attitude of public towards health workers changes.
“Often local political leaders are involved in violence in hospitals. Even with the present law, the enforcement agencies can act effectively. But more often than not, they help in making the case weaker,” said a government doctor who did not want to be named. The medical students, meanwhile, complained that they come under attack for various reasons on a daily basis. “We do not feel safe to work on casualty duty at night. We face constant verbal abuse and threats from inebriated patients or their bystanders,” said a resident doctor.
The doctors have decided to put pressure on the government to promulgate an Ordinance to amend the Hospital Protection Act (The Kerala Health Service Persons and Healthcare Services Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act 2012, by including time-bound and stringent action against hospital attack cases.