Lucknow: On 17th April, Dr Prashaant Bhatnagar, Professor at Meerut Medical College, Uttar Pradesh was attacked by his neighbours who sought to oust him from his house as they believed he could spread the deadly novel coronavirus in the area.
Dr Bhatnagar’s right-hand got fractured in two places and was later fixed by surgery. This forced him to stay at home for at least six weeks.
“The attack has not just fractured my hand, but my self-respect and pride too. That I was punished for serving the people in this crisis is quite painful and frustrating,” Dr Bhatnagar tells FPJ.
A day before, Dr Sudhish Agarwal was injured at Moradabad along with three health workers as a mob pelted stones at them to prevent them from taking a covid19-suspected family into isolation.
From Nagpur to Delhi to Chennai, several doctors across India physically and verbally, harassed to vacate their accommodations and discriminated against during the covid19 outbreak. Even women doctors have faced attack and social stigma.
Last Thursday, Union government came out with an ordinance amending the Epidemic Diseases Act 1897 to make the offense non-bailable with provision of maximum seven years imprisonment and Rs five lakh penalty. The offender shall also be liable to pay compensation twice the fair market value for damage of doctor’s property. The ordinances anyway have six months validity.
“The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 manifests our commitment to protect each and every healthcare worker who is bravely battling COVID-19 on the frontline. It will ensure the safety of our professionals. There can be no compromise on their safety!” tweeted Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The medical community hailed the first central law in this regard, but raised concern that a temporary solution may not resolve a deep-rooted problem of assaults on medical staff in the country.
“Over 1,000 doctors are attacked every month in India, physically or verbally or by other means mostly when the patient dies. The coronavirus epidemic has added a social discrimination angle to this long pending issue wherein doctors are attacked or ousted as people fear they would spread the disease. We hope that the first ever Central law brought in this regard would act as deterrent,” says Indian Medical Association Maharashtra wing president Dr Avinash Bhondwe.
He recalls that doctors used to get lot of respect in the past until first incident on attack on medical staff happened two decades ago in Maharashtra. The Singhania hospital in Thane was burnt after the death of Shivsena leader Anand Dighe. The management, it belonged to industrialist Gautam Singhania, never reopened the hospital.
Dr Sagar Mundada, a psychiatrist based in Mumbai, says, “The ordinance seems to be a temporary relief as it would be effective only until the epidemic exists. Besides, it is yet to be seen how effectively it would be implemented and how many accused are actually convicted.”
Dr Mundada, former president of the Maharashtra’s Resident Doctors Association, also points out that apart from the universal law, the government should also focus on providing safety to doctors and improving public health infrastructure.
“The patient load, shortage of resources and poor security in government and civic-run hospitals puts lot of mental and physical pressure on doctors. But the authorities never address these issues. Mumbai’s public hospitals have witnessed several attacks on doctors over the past few years. The doctors need the protection beyond this epidemic too.”
Interestingly, the Union government had drafted a legislation to protect doctors a year ago. It talked about maximum 10 years jail and Rs10 lakh penalty for those who would attack doctors. No one knows where that bill has gone?
Dr Prashant too is sceptical about the implementation part. “I am being pressurised to dilute the case. It happens with most doctors. In many cases, cops deliberately skip the stringent Acts while booking influential accused. This emboldens the attackers and demoralises the doctors further,” says Dr Prashant.
Dr Bhondwe recalls that the Maharashtra government had brought a similar ordinance about 25 years ago but so far only two convictions took place under that Act. Though he insists that the central law would be more effective and the local units of IMA would ensure that no accused gets away unpunished.
He adds that the Modi government has promised with the IMA that the ordinance would be converted into a full-fledged law by the parliament when the lcokdown ends.
