SC to hear plea on violence against doctors

Supreme Court of India. File Pic

The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear on Monday a plea seeking directions to authorities to ensure adequate security at hospitals and medical centres to prevent attacks on doctors and healthcare workers by relatives of patients and others.

A bench of Justices S K Kaul and Abhay S Oka is likely to take up the matter.

The plea filed by the Delhi Medical Association and Dr Satyajit Borah, who is the president of Assam State Branch of Indian Medical Association, also seeks directions to the Centre and states to have a distress fund to grant compensation to the victim or family of the deceased healthcare workers, including doctors and nurses, in such violence.

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The petition, filed through advocate Sneha Kalita, says there is an increase in number of such assaults and verbal abuse, and "extreme incidents of public lynching" that have led to the death of doctors or health workers.

"The petitioners are seeking appropriate directions in the form of guidelines to have a security system in place to ensure a safe working environment for the medical service personnel/ professionals and the health care workers'," it had said.

"At present, there is no substantial central legislation which has a holistic mechanism of preventive, punitive and compensatory measures which can address the above-mentioned issues of violence against medical service personnel/professionals and the health care workers," the plea had claimed.