Attacks on government doctors due to fewer specialists: HC

Expressing concern over doctors being beaten up, the court asked the authorities why do they not publicise the consequences of indulging in such violent activities.

It asked the Centre and the Delhi government to publicly display the punishment for assaulting doctors and asked them to apprise it about the steps taken on the next date of hearing on May 29.

The court on May 3 had initiated the PIL based on the report that doctors in public hospitals were being subjected to extreme violence.

Stressing the need to provide security and better facilities to the doctors and patients, the bench had asked the authorities about the number of cases they have lodged in this regard and also the prosecution carried out.

On reading the report which said that resident doctors of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have decided to take self-defence classes, the bench had observed "this needs to taken care by the authorities and steps have to be taken in this regard".

"This incident is of great concern for all the doctors of the public hospitals as it relates to their safety," the bench said, adding that "violence is not only physical, the doctors are being verbally abused".

Besides the secretaries of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Centre and the state government, the bench also directed Indian Medical Association (IMA) to place before it positively within one week a status report with regard to the adequate security at government hospitals to tackle violence.

As per the article, the AIIMS doctors' counterparts at Lok Nayak Hospital and Lady Hardinge Medical College in the national capital have already undergone similar self-defence training.

In March, the AIIMS resident doctors' association had launched a unique protest to display solidarity with the striking doctors of Maharashtra, who were agitating on the same issue, by wearing helmets at work.