Violence against health workers: Institute heads to file FIR within 6 hours says Centre

New Delhi: The government on Friday said heads of health institutions will have to file an FIR within six hours in case of an incident of violence against a healthcare worker on duty, amid escalating protests across the country over the alleged rape and murder of a woman trainee doctor at a state-run hospital in Kolkata.

Following a call by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) for a 24-hour nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency and OPD services, more medics from public as well as private health facilities joined protests against last week's incident at Kolkata's RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, demanding justice for the victim and a central law to protect healthcare workers.

In Delhi, non-emergency and out-patient department (OPD) services remained hit for the fifth day in major hospitals, including AIIMS and Safdarjung, while a group of medics held a sit-in outside the Nirman Bhawan, which houses the Union health ministry. Protest marches were taken out by resident doctors in several cities, including those in Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab and Gujarat, while in Kolkata, police have arrested 25 people in connection with the Thursday early morning vandalism and violence at the hospital where students are demonstrating since August 9 following the alleged rape and murder incident.

Stating that the decision of the health ministry to form a panel for deliberating on a central law to protect healthcare workers as "too little and too late", IMA chief Dr R V Asokan told PTI that there is a draft Bill that was prepared in 2019 after stakeholders' consultation but it never went to Parliament.

The Calcutta High Court on Friday described the vandalism at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital as an "absolute failure of state machinery," while the doctor's parents told the CBI that a few interns and physicians of the reputed medical facility were allegedly involved in her rape and murder.