Maharashtra: Doctor victims of violence can now record their cases, get help with IMA registry

Maharashtra: With no records with the government, on how many instances of violence against doctors take place, the Indian Medical Association, Maharashtra State branch has now taken the issue in its own hands by announcing a separate registry to record such incidents. The move comes at a time where the medical fraternity has suffered a huge setback from the government in terms of rejection of their demand for common law on violence against doctors. Medical Dialogues had recently reported the IMA has sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi's intervention to bring a Central law to protect medical professionals from violence, after a draft bill in this regard was put on the back-burner with the Home Ministry dismissing the need for a separate legislation in this regard. The Law Ministry had approved the draft Bill, but the Home Ministry, during inter-ministerial consultations over it, stated that there cannot be separate legislation to protect members of a particular profession.

Read also: After MHA setback, IMA asks PM to expedite law on Violence against doctors The registry as announced by IMA will be currently limited to Maharashtra doctors only and will register all the cases of doctors who report any kind of verbal, abuse or intimidation violence against them. The complaint will be recorded in an web application which has been designed especially for this purpose. IMA Maharashtra has 210 district branches with 43,000 doctors attached with them. The registry will serve two major purposes. One is to maintain records of violence against doctors and secondly, would act as a medium where IMA will intervene and provide help to every doctor who registers their case with them IMA has designed a registry through which every doctor and medical student in Maharashtra can file a complaint against the violence. After receiving the complaint, IMA branch will reach out to help the complainant and provide support to them including making sure that authorities take strict action against the accused. This registry will also help the authorities to identify the repeat offenders. Doctors can also access through the family history of the patients in regards to the violence towards the doctor.

Read also: Bill Calling for Compensation to Doctors for Violence to be pushed in next Parliament Session All the information will be recorded in a web application through a series of method and in systemic format. "The online registry has become active. We are using an internet-based application to compile data of cases where doctors faced abuse, intimidation or physical attack anywhere in Maharastra. It is the first time IMA had prepared this," Avinash Bhondwe, Maharashtra IMA president told TOI.