Plea in SC seeks security in hospitals

A plea was filed on Friday in the Supreme Court seeking a direction to deploy uniformed security personnel at every government hospital of the country to ensure safety and security of the doctors, who acted as saviours of poor patients.

In view of assault on junior doctors at NRS Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata on June 10, the petitioner advocate Alakh Alok Srivastava sought a direction to formulate "appropriate guidelines/ Act/ Rule or Regulation" to protect the doctors working at government hospitals.

In his PIL, the advocate contended that as per a study conducted by Indian Medical Association (IMA), more than 75% of doctors across the country have faced at least some form of violence. This study concluded that 50% of the incidents took place in the Intensive Care Units of hospitals, and in 70% of cases, the relatives of the patients were actively involved.

"The doctors are our saviours and those working in government hospitals are doing great national service, especially to the poor and downtrodden of this country, in extremely adverse circumstances," the petition stated.

Srivastava said he filed the petition in order to resolve the ongoing protests of the doctors amicably, to help save lives of lakhs of patients.

Seeking strict action in Kolkata incident, the petitioner pointed out that "legislative vacuum and inaction" on the part of governments in such cases was an injustice to the public.