The health department of the Delhi government had issued a circular which directs all state-run hospitals to file an institutional FIR in case of any incident involving abuse or violence by the patients or their attendants.
According to the circular, the institution, not the individual will file FIR/complaints in case of violence against medical staff.
“It will be incumbent on the medical superintendent/director of the institution to ensure an FIR is lodged in such cases by the hospital or institution concerned rather than insisting on the concerned hospital staff to get it lodged,” stated the circular issued by principal secretary (health) Sanjeev Khirwar.
The doctors are welcoming this decision happily. The Head of Delhi Medical Council (DMC), Dr Arun Gupta said this was a much-needed directive. “It is the duty of the hospital to protect its employee and fight for him /her if the doctor or any other staff is attacked while on duty” he added. Over the past years, violence against doctors has been a constant matter of debate. A senior resident of Safdarjung hospital said that in public hospitals like theirs, there’s no profit mongering. “We work for 36 hours at a stretch with limited resources, and even after that get abused and assaulted”, he added. According to a doctor working in that hospital, physical, verbal and social media attack on them has become a trend.
Recently, a junior doctor working in the Safdarjung hospital has been assaulted by a patient and his attendants who allegedly broke the doctor’s nasal bones.
Dr Vivek Couksey, former president of the Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association of India said “We have become the favourite bashing boys. No one will go and ask the administration why there are such few ICU beds? They won’t go and ask the government why even after six decades since independence, the disparity in availability of super-speciality health services remains high across different regions.”

Source: Economic times Health, Times of India

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