Medical body of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Saturday announced that it is going to hold a protest against rampant cases of violence against doctors in the nation. After several incidences of doctors being manhandled by patients’ relatives were reported this decision has been taken.
IMA President Dr. J A Jayalal informed that the protest will be organised on June 18, Friday, against assault on medical professionals under the slogan ‘Save the Saviour’. All the doctors will join the protest by wearing black masks, shirts, and badges. Dr. Jayalal stated, no hospitals will be closed during the protest.
“Doctors serving in COVID wards have been beaten and brutally assaulted in Bihar, West Bengal, Assam, UP, and Karnataka. It is responsibility of the government to ensure the safety and security of frontline workers who are working in a pandemic,” the IMA President said.
“We demand that govt brings a central protection law with provisions under CrPC and IPC and also ensure that all government and private hospital have a mandatory security structure.”
Earlier this week, IMA had wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, seeking his intervention to ensure that medical professionals can work without fear, and asked for strict action against those who assault doctors as per relevant legal framework
“Any person(s) who spreads misinformation against the vaccination drive, which is meant to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, must be booked and punished in accordance with law including under the relevant provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, the Indian Penal Code and the Disaster Management Act, 2005,” said the association further demanded in its letter to the PM.
The doctor’s body had also written to the Home Minister Amit Shah last week, requesting for strict laws to stop the violence against the doctors. The hospitals should be declared as protected zones with mandatory police deployment to check these kinds of incidents, demanded the association.