Institute heads to file FIR within 6 hours of incident of violence against health worker: Government

Recently it has been observed that violence has become common against doctors and other healthcare staff in government hospitals, the memo said.

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Friday asked the heads of government hospitals to register a first information report with the police within six hours of any violence at the hospitals against any on-duty healthcare worker.

“In the event of any violence against any healthcare worker while on-duty, the Head of Institution shall be responsible for filing an institutional FIR within a maximum of six hours of the incident,” the Directorate General of Health Services said in an official order.

The absence of an institutional FIR remained one of the contentious issues in the RG Kar episode involving the rape and murder of a 31 year female post-graduate medical student inside the government hospitals.

In the order, Atul Goel, the Director General of Health Services says that violence has become common against doctors and other healthcare staff in government hospitals and most of such violence is caused either by patient or patient’s attendants.

A number of health workers suffer physical violence during the course of their duty and many are threatened or exposed to verbal aggression.

Securing the hospital is one of the key demands of the doctors agitating across the nation in the wake of the brutal incident at the Kolkata medical college.

The Indian Medical Association on Friday demanded that the security protocols of all hospitals should be no less than an airport and implementation of a central law against violence on doctors and healthcare workers.