NMC mandates safety upgrades in medical colleges

Hyderabad: Following the rape and murder of a medical student in West Bengal, the National Medical Commission (NMC) issued an advisory on Tuesday to all medical colleges and institutions, emphasising the need to ensure a safe workplace environment.

The NMC highlighted the recent rise in violence against doctors in medical colleges. All medical colleges are requested to develop a policy for a safe work environment within the college and hospital campuses for all staff members, including faculty, medical students, and resident doctors. The policy should ensure adequate safety measures at OPD, wards, casualties, hostels, and other open areas on campus and in residential quarters. Corridors and campus should be well lit in the evening for staff to walk safely from one place to another, and all sensitive areas must be covered by CCTV for monitoring.

The NMC advisory further said that adequate security measures, including the posting of adequate security staff (male and female), should be made available at the OPD, wards, casualties, labour rooms, hostels, residential quarters, and other open areas on the medical college and hospital campuses. Any incident of violence against the medical students should be promptly investigated by the college management, and an FIR should be lodged with the police. A detailed action taken report on any incident of violence should invariably be sent to the NMC within 48 hours of the incident, the advisory said.