“Three years and a fine of 50,000” for assaulting doctors; MPA gets widespread adoption
The safety of doctors in India is significantly deteriorating where incidents of physical abuse come under the limelight and sadly, most number of cases even go unreported.
An act called the Medical Protection Act has come to the rescue and our country is taking a step forward to harness protection to our doctors through the act which states that;
- The perpetrator can face a jail time of up to three years for beating up a physician.
- A penalty of 50,000 is also levied.
This act was passed in Jharkhand in 2013 by the IMA (Indian Medical Association) and is currently practised in 17 Indian states.
Now, two more states are all geared up to deem it a punishable offence if you are caught punching your doctor. Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh have agreed to implement it by educating their troop of police officials about the Medical Protection Act, with the government of Haryana not far back behind, promising to enact the same.
3 years and 50,000 : Is it enough? States like Queensland are adopting more stringent laws to tackle the issue.
Queensland is protecting its team of paramedics by increasing prison time to a span of 14 years if anybody is found guilty of assaulting a health worker in any form, verbal or physical.
China’s situation is worse than ours where doctors are hanging on a thin thread for their lives. In fact, China is contemplating to instill “Doctor’s day” in their calendar to instigate a sense of respect for the profession from the public.
Is stringent law only the answer? What about implementation?
Recently, a doctor in Mumbai was left bloodied after his patient’s kin attacked him and a doctor in Allahabad suffered the same.The perpetrators in the Allahabad fiasco were granted bail on a sum of 30,000 each. The accused in question was a lawyer. The reason stated for bail was that he did not have any “previous Criminal record” and due to a cross FIR registered against the doctor, Mr. Gupta who suffered a face fracture and multiple soft injuries. The unfortunate incident was caught on surveillance cameras.
