Jan 14, 2007 Author Unknown The Indiana Times (IN)

PATNA: Doctors’ Organisation for Social Action (DOSA) has appealed to the Centre and the state government to frame laws providing for deterrent punishment to those who attack physically or prosecute doctors on frivolous and unjust charges.

DOSA, headed by eminent doctors of Patna Dr Gopal Prasad Sinha and Dr Ajay Kumar, maintained that medical and health professionals all over the country, particularly in Bihar, are subjected to physical attacks, humiliations, destruction of their properties and undue criminal prosecution in course of performing their professional duties.

The organisation pointed out that at the recent national conference of the IMA, CM Nitish Kumar accepted that a doctor gets more depressed if his patient dies but in most of the cases, people due to ignorance or ulterior motives attack or prosecute them. “Nitish Kumar had appealed to the people to realise it. But can such appeals solve this problem?” DOSA asked.

It pointed out that the Supreme Court had taken note of the fact that cases of doctors subjected to criminal prosecution are on the increase. “A surgeon with shaky hands under the fear of legal action cannot perform a successful operation and a quivering physician cannot administer the end dose of medicine to his patient,” DOSA quoted the apex court observation in 2005.

It also pointed out that the apex court has given a direction that statutory rules or executive instructions incorporating certain guidelines need to be framed and issued by the government of India or the state governments in consultation with the Medical Council of India.

The doctors said that it was unfortunate that while the Centre and the state governments have been fast in making laws to regulate the medical profession, they have not implemented the direction of the Supreme Court which can help and protect doctors from unlawful actions and litigations. They recalled that the Nepal Medical Association has signed an agreement with the Nepal government to end a nationwide strike triggered by an attack on a medical staff following the death of a child during treatment. The agreement includes promulgation of a “Health Professionals Protection Act”.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/NEWS /Cities/Patna/Doctors_for_laws_against_ attack_on_them/articleshow/1174109.cms

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