Hospitals must register FIR within 6 hours of assault on doctors: MoS Health tells Parliament

New Delhi: All medical institutions and government hospitals across the country have been directed to register an FIR within six hours of any incident involving an attack or assault on medical practitioners, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Smt. Anupriya Patel recently informed the Rajya Sabha. 

Medical Dialogues has been extensively reporting on the increasing incidents of violence against medical professionals at various medical colleges and hospitals across the country. While in some cases, the accused have been apprehended and punished due to the immediate registering of FIRs, other cases have seen little progress with FIRs being registered late and not being registered at all in some instances. 

Sharing information on the issue, MoS Health Anupriya Patel stated that data and details regarding attacks on medical professionals are not maintained centrally, as it falls under the purview of individual states. 

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"As per Constitutional provisions, ‘Health’ and ‘Law & Order’ are State subjects. Therefore, it is the primary responsibility of the concerned State/ Union Territory to take note of events and eventualities for taking appropriate action to prevent attack against medical practitioners in hospitals," she said in a written statement.