IMA Delegation Meets Nadda, Demands Hospitals Be Declared Safe Zones

All hospitals in the country should be declared safe zones so that doctors can work without fear, IMA chief Dr R V Asokan said after meeting Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Tuesday.

He also welcomed Calcutta High Court's order to transfer the probe into the alleged rape and death of a woman doctor to the CBI.

A delegation of IMA met Nadda this afternoon. During the meeting, a memorandum was submitted demanding that hospitals across the country be declared as safe zones, a central law against violence and security stipulations by NMC for recognition of medical colleges, Asokan said.

"We forth our three demands. Since the proportion of woman doctors is around 60 per cent of the total doctors population in the country, the security of lady doctors is an important issue and hospitals across the country should be declared as safe zones. Law should define the entitlement of the term safe zone," he said.

Secondly, the IMA has been demanding enactment of a special central law to curb attacks and violence on doctors, Asokan said.

"We asked for the long pending demand for the enactment of central law against violence against doctors. He said there were some limitations in front of the government and that he consider this," he said.

Twenty-five states have law on attack on doctors and hospitals. They are mostly ineffective on ground and do not serve the purpose of deterrence, Asokan said.

Resident doctors across the country are protesting against "unsafe" working conditions in hospitals, disrupting patient care services.

An IMA delegation on Tuesday also left for Kolkata to meet the family of the deceased victim girl, the agitating doctors and the Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

The IMA has demanded that the West Bengal government ensures an impartial and thorough investigation of the case and punishment of the culprits and also a detailed inquiry into the conditions enabling the crime.

"West Bengal does not have a state law to deal with violence against the doctor and so we will be pressing for that," Asokan said.