IMA urges PM Modi to ensure doctors can ‘work without fear’

NEW DELHI: In the wake of incidents of assault on doctors by relatives of patients, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday sought Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention in ensuring “optimum milieu” for medical professionals so that they can work without fear.

Underlining the need for curbing the purposeful spread of misinformation against modern medicine and Covid-19 vaccination by certain people with vested interests, the IMA has appealed to the prime minister to resolve their long pending pleas.

In a letter to Modi, the doctors’ body said persons spreading misinformation against the Covid-19 vaccination drive must be booked and punished in accordance with law, including under relevant provisions of the Epidemic Diseases Act, 1897, the Indian Penal Code and the Disaster Management Act, 2005.

“All such acts of omission and commission on behalf of any person raising doubts in the minds of the common public against the protocol guidance issued by the Ministry of Health for treatment of Covid-19 infected patients – ought to be suitable punished and simultaneously, any attempt of any person to fool the gullible public and promote so-called ‘magic remedies’ or ‘wonder drugs’ without the approval of the Ministry of Health, Government of India – ought to be immediately curtailed,” the IMA said in the letter.

“In the midst of this pandemic, we are also deeply hurt to see the increasing incidents of physical violence against the doctors and the health care professionals in this country. The brutal assault on our young doctor in Assam and the assault on lady doctors and even on veteran practitioners across the country - are really causing mental trauma amongst the practitioners,” the letter stated.

“The Health Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019, which seeks to punish people who assault on-duty doctors and other healthcare professionals by imposing a jail term of up to 10 years – which, apparently, was dismissed by the Home Ministry during an inter-ministerial consultation over the draft law, ought to be promulgated immediately along with the incorporation of provisions from the IPC/ CRPC and with stipulations for a fixed time schedule for speedy conclusion of trials,” it said.