Health dept urges Home counterparts to ensure docs' safety

Following reports of attacks on doctors in Odisha by relatives of patients, the Health and Family Welfare Department today urged the Home Department to ensure safety and security of the physicians.
"The Home Department needs to issue directions to all police stations in the state to take immediate action when cases of attack on doctors come," Health and Family Welfare Secretary Arati Ahuja said in a letter to Home Secretary C J Venugopal.
Referring to instances of doctors being killed in the name of negligence in treatment, Ahuja drew attention of the Home Secretary seeking security for the practitioners, who he said are living in fear following series of attacks.

She also urged the Home Secretary to issue instructions to the police to lodge FIR as per provisions of the Orissa Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2008, which is meant to prevent violence causing injury or danger to life of medicare service personnel and damage to property of healthcare institutions.
Two doctors -- one in a private hospital in the state capital and another in Subarnapur district-- had been killed allegedly by relatives of patients for alleged negligence in treatment.
A series of incidents relating to murder and assault on doctors have triggered panic among the medicos across the state, Odisha Medical Service Association (OMSA) said, adding that unless stringent actions are taken, medical practitioners may not find it prudent to do their duties.