Immediate steps should be taken to ensure safety of doctors: HC

The Bombay high court on Tuesday said steps needed to be taken at the earliest to ensure security in state and civic-run hospitals to prevent attacks on doctors and staff by aggrieved relatives of patients.

The Bombay high court on Tuesday said steps needed to be taken at the earliest to ensure security in state and civic-run hospitals to prevent attacks on doctors and staff by aggrieved relatives of patients.

If steps are not taken immediately, the Bombay high court said it would direct the Mumbai Police Commissioner to increase police deployment in hospitals.(Bhushan Koyande/HT file)

The issue was raised by a division bench of justices AS Oka and AA Sayyed after going through an affidavit filed by Maharashtra government giving details of police personnel and security staff deployed in state-run hospitals.

The affidavit was filed in a PIL by activist Afak Mandaviya, highlighting the issue of doctors going on strike frequently causing inconvenience to patients.

On earlier hearings, the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (MARD) assured the court, that henceforth, it would not give a call or go on strike anywhere in the state and would only hold peaceful demonstrations highlighting their grievances, which included attacks on doctors by relatives.

“This means there is lack of security and doctors are attacked because of this. If this is the situation in hospitals in Mumbai, then it would be worse in rest of Maharashtra. If something is not done immediately then we will direct the Mumbai Police Commissioner to increase police deployment,” the court said.

As per the affidavit submitted by the government on Tuesday, in hospitals like J J Hospital, Sion hospital, St Georges, G T Hospital and Nair hospital, two policemen each were posted for security, while four policemen have been posted in KEM Hospital.