Kerala doctor attack: Shashi Tharoor asks state govt to bring law to protect healthcare workers

New Delhi: In the wake of an assault on a doctor at a hospital in Kozhikode, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor on Friday recalled that he had introduced a private member's bill in Parliament to protect healthcare workers from violence and urged the Kerala government to bring such a law in the current Assembly session and pass it without delay.

His remarks came after Dr Vipin was seriously injured after being attacked with a machete by a man at the government-run Thamarassery Taluk Hospital. The assailant, whose young daughter had recently died of amoebic meningitis, was arrested soon after the incident.

In a post on X, Tharoor said, "Deeply disturbed by the brutal assault on Dr Vipin PT at Thamarassery Taluk Hospital by a distraught father whose daughter succumbed to disease...Just over two years after the horrific murder of Dr Vandana Das, it is clear that we in Kerala have failed to protect our doctors. Government hospitals must become safe zones. Security protocols cannot wait." "I strongly sympathise with medical practitioners, who lay their lives on the line to keep ordinary Keralites safe. Kerala's doctors are protesting not just an assault, but a pattern. From Dr Vandana Das' tragic murder to today's attack on Dr Vipin PT, the message is clear: our healers are not safe," he said.

The government must act — with immediate security steps, protocols at all hospitals, and above all with respect, the MP from Thiruvananthapuram said.

"In August 2023, I introduced a Private Member's Bill in Parliament to protect healthcare workers from violence -- the Healthcare Personnel and Healthcare Institutions (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2023 -- and proposed it be named the Vandana Das Act, in honour of the young doctor brutally murdered on duty that year," Tharoor said.

The Kerala government must now bring this law into the current Assembly session and pass it without delay, he asserted.

"Unless there is stronger enforcement of security measures at public health institutions to ensure safe working conditions, qualified and devoted doctors will seek jobs elsewhere, leaving Keralites in jeopardy and risking our widely-hailed public health model. The time to act is NOW!" Tharoor said.