Gujarat govt moves bill to protect docs, hospitals

Here comes a protective shield for doctors from the state government. The government has drafted a bill to prevent violence and damage or loss of property to persons and institutions providing medicare services. The bill will be presented in the current session of the assembly by state health minister Jay Narayan Vyas. It covers all public and private medical institutions, hospitals, medical colleges, maternity homes, nursing homes and clinics under its domain.

The bill is intended to provide protection to medicare service persons, para medical staff and property. There are provisions of strict penalty and liability to compensate for damage done to these institutions/persons. Moreover, offences of violence and damage to medicare service persons or institutions will be considered cognizable and will be non-bailable.

The statement of objects and reasons of the bill says that during severe complicated cases if the patient dies, the relatives or the guardians of the patient at times misunderstand the situation and assault the medical person or damage property. The bill also says that such incidents have been reported in the state in recent times, which has caused unrest among the medical persons and disruption of medical services.

So the need to enact a law to prevent such violent incidents and to provide protection to medicare persons, and property of medical institutions, has been felt by the government.