Centre’s olive branch to striking doctors: Will form panel for safety measures

The Union Health Ministry on Saturday asked doctors to end their nationwide strike against.

The gruesome rape and murder of the trainee doctor at Kolkata’s RG Kar Hospital and assured them that a committee tasked with proposing safety measures for healthcare professionals will be formed. This committee, as per the centre, will include input from all relevant stakeholders, including state governments, who will be invited to share their insights and suggestions.

This came as doctors across the nation are holding a 24-hour strike in protest against the brutal murder and rape of a trainee doctor at a state-run medical college in Kolkata.

During the protest, all health services — except for essential services and emergency care — were suspended. The medical community is demanding justice and urgent reforms, including an overhaul of resident doctors’ working and living conditions and the implementation of a central law to protect healthcare professionals from workplace violence.

Union Health Ministry officials met the representatives of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA), the Indian Medical Association (IMA), and Resident Doctors’ Associations of Governmental Medical Colleges and Hospitals in Delhi today.

In the meeting, the healthcare associations expressed grave concerns about the safety and security of healthcare workers in their workplaces. They presented their demands to the Centre, urging the government to take swift and decisive action to protect medical professionals from violence and other threats.

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in response, assured the representatives that the government is acutely aware of the challenges faced by healthcare workers and is committed to addressing these issues. The Ministry said that 26 states have already enacted legislation to safeguard healthcare workers, emphasising the government’s sensitivity to the matter.

“The Ministry requested the agitating doctors to resume their duties in the larger public interest and in view of the rising cases of Dengue and Malaria,” reads the official statement.