IMA to work will panel appointed by SC on safety, security of medical professionals

New Delhi, Aug 20 (PTI) Welcoming the Supreme Court’s intervention to stop attacks on medical professionals, the IMA, in an internal communication, said on Tuesday it will work with the committee appointed by the court on safety, security and other related matters, while asserting that a “central Act on violence is non-negotiable”.

An internal communication sent to all the state presidents and secretaries and local branch presidents and secretaries by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) leadership said a central law on violence is non-negotiable and that the Centre is competent to take an appropriate decision in this regard.

“A central Act against violence is a policy matter. An ordinance in this regard is the demand of the IMA,” it said.

The communication also said the IMA headquarters is studying the statement issued by the health ministry in this regard.

The IMA headquarters has directed all its local branches to meet with their MPs and give them a copy of the memorandum submitted to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 17 mentioning their demands.

It directed all the state branches to coordinate this activity and file detailed completion reports in three days.

“The 2019 draft Bill incorporating the 2020 amendments in the Epidemic Diseases Act is the minimum acceptable law. The Code Grey of the Kerala government to be incorporated. The responsibility and punishment of the investigating officer has to be similar to the POCSO Act,” the communication stated.

The state branches of the IMA have also been directed to connect with the resident doctors’ associations (RDAs) in their states and have a consultation meeting.

The IMA headquarters has called for a similar consultation meeting.

A virtual meeting of the IMA’s state presidents and secretaries was called at 9 pm on Tuesday.

The IMA on Saturday sought the prime minister’s “benign” intervention in realising their demands, including a central law to check violence against healthcare personnel and declaring hospitals as safe zones, like airports, with mandatory security entitlements.

The IMA’s letter to Modi, putting forth its five demands, came against the backdrop of the alleged rape and killing of a trainee woman doctor at a state-run medical college and hospital in Kolkata and the subsequent vandalism there.

The 36-hour duty shift that the victim was in and the lack of safe spaces for rest and adequate rest rooms warrant a thorough overhaul of the working and living conditions of the resident doctors, the IMA had said.

The doctors’ body had also declared a nationwide withdrawal of non-emergency medical services from 6 am on August 17 to 6 am on August 18.