Effective law needed for violence against healthcare professionals: IMA tells AMit Shah

June 3: The brutal attack of a junior doctor in a Covid Care Centre in Hojai district of Assam on Tuesday was criticised by the entire nation. The way in which the patient party behaved was strongly condemned. They not only vandalised the property of the hospital where their patient died, but also mercilessly thrashed the on duty junior doctor that he sustained major injuries.

Indian medical Association (IMA) has taken strong note of this incident and subsequently requested Home Minister Amit Shah for an effective, strong and uniform law “against healthcare violance.” The IMA in a letter to the Home Minister stated, “Healthcare violence has become alarming phenomenon across the country.”

A bill named ‘Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property Bill, 2019 was drafted by the health ministry in 2019. But the home ministry dismissed the need for a separate law to check violence against a specific profession. IMA demanded that looking at the atrocities perpetrated upon the healthcare professionals, such a law is the need of the hour.

Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Dr himanta Biswa Sarma has himself taken the responsibility of nabbing the miscreants associated with physical assault upon the junior doctor in Hojai. 24 persons including a woman was apprehended by Assam Police within 24 hours of the brutal incident.