BHUBANESWAR: Amid the nationwide outrage over alleged rape and murder of an on-duty junior doctor in West Bengal, the Odisha government has formulated a new policy for providing a safe workplace environment for doctors, students and medicare persons in healthcare and health education institutions.
As per the new policy, health institutions will have to establish a clear incident reporting process, ensure confidentiality and prompt action on reported incidents besides provisioning escort services or safe transportation options for women doctors, employees and students during night shifts.
Any incident of violence against medical students would be promptly investigated by the college management and a complaint be lodged with the police within six hours by the head of the institution. He or she should also send a detailed action taken report to the National Medical Commission (NMC) within 48 hours of the incident.
The SP of the district concerned will take immediate and appropriate action as per law against miscreants in order to discourage people from such activities. The policy has stipulated to constitute an institutional monitoring committee to undertake monthly review of all the measures and take follow-up action. The committee will have representatives of doctors, faculty, paramedics, students and other stakeholders.
All government medical college hospitals will have a police outpost on their premises with at least one woman police staff on duty.
All hospitals will ensure the availability of doctor’s duty room and separate washrooms for men and women doctors and nurses in all wards.
The health institutions must have a perimeter boundary wall with defined entry and exit gates and security guards must be posted in all OPDs 24x7. The entry of the general public and vehicles will be regulated to stop use of health institution premises for thoroughfare.
“CCTV cameras must be installed at strategic locations of the hospitals, outside all hostels, main gate, roads, stairwells and other strategic points on campus and on each floor of the hostel for monitoring of the activities. If required, security hubs will be set up near high case load departments in the hospitals,” it stated.
The state government has also asked hospitals and medical institutions to develop an emergency response plan, including panic buttons and mobile apps to respond quickly to any threat. They will also provide orientation and training to all medicare workers, students and security personnel to handle emergency situations.
Besides, a grievance redressal system will be developed through which aggrieved attendants can approach the head of the institution at the time of need instead of taking law into their own hands.
“Regular safety audits will be conducted in hospitals to identify and address the potential security risks besides ensuring workplace safety for the medical professionals,” said a senior health official.
Plan in detail
Clear reporting process, confidentiality & prompt action
Head of institution should report to police within 6 hours
All MCHs to have on-campus police outpost
CCTV cameras at all strategic locations on campus
Security hubs at high caseload depts
Grievance redressal system for patient attendants