Separate central law to deal with offences against health care professionals not needed: NTF

NEW DELHI: A separate central law to deal with offences against health care professionals is not required as the state laws have adequate provisions to address day-to-day minor offences and serious ones can be addressed by the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) 2023, the National Task Force (NTF) has recommended.

The NTF was constituted by the Supreme Court on August 20 to formulate a protocol for ensuring safety and security of medical professionals in wake of the rape and murder of a postgraduate trainee doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata.

In a slew of recommendations made in its report, the NTF said 24 states have already enacted laws to address violence against health care professionals, whereby the terms "health care institutions" and "medical professionals" have also been defined.

It said two more states have already introduced their Bills in this regard.

The recommendations said most of the state laws cover minor offences and prescribe punishment for them and the major offences or heinous crimes are adequately covered under the BNS.

"It has been observed that state laws have adequate provisions to address day-to-day minor offences and serious offences can be addressed by BNS. A separate central law to deal with offences against health care professionals is, therefore, not required," the NTF said.

The task force has recommended that in states where no specific legislation exists to protect medical professionals, the provisions of the BNS 2023 should be used immediately to address acts of violence against them.

The Centre has placed the NTF's report in an affidavit filed in the apex court.

In its detailed report, the NTF said for the timeline of implementation, its recommendations have been divided into short-term, medium-term and long-term measures.

It has stressed on ensuring due security in health care establishments, including constitution of security committee there, deployment of trained security personnel and coordination with local police.

The NTF has recommended that depending on the size and nature of the health care establishments (HCE), adequate number of CCTVs are required to be installed for surveillance.

"Distress call system is to be installed in HCE in critical, vulnerable/violence prone areas and other areas as per requirement which should be accessible to medical professionals," it said.

The NTF has also made recommendations about infrastructural development and strengthening of infrastructure, which included well-kept boundary wall with fencing and secured windows.

"NTF recommends that medical institutions should endeavour to adhere to guidelines laid down/instructions issued by the National Medical Commission (NMC) from time-to-time in respect of duty hours regulation and working conditions for resident doctors," it said.

In its recommendations for strengthening legal framework and capacity building, the task force has said timely intervention (lodging complaint/FIR, including Zero FIR), proper investigation and prompt legal action is necessary to deter potential offenders and create a sense of security amongst all medical professionals.

It said public at large and medical professionals in particular may be made aware about legal provisions related to safety and security of medical professionals.

The NTF has said effective communication between medical professionals and patients' families is critical in ensuring a safe environment in medical spaces.

"Poor communication is often identified as a major factor in frustration, mistrust and sometimes increased tension resulting in violence or even mob attacks on medical professionals," it said.

It recommended that an internal grievance redressal mechanism should be set up to enable medical professionals to register complaints and redress any threat or offences committed against them.

The report stressed on constitution of internal complaints committee (ICC) under the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redressal) Act, 2013 at each HCE.

It said appropriate measures must be taken to prevent any stigmatisation of the complainant.

"All HCEs should bring awareness regarding 'Sexual Harassment electronic- Box (SHe-Box)' which is a single window online access portal for every woman, irrespective of her work status, whether working in organised or unorganised, private or public sector, to facilitate the registration of complaint related to sexual harassment," it said.

The NTF has recommended that states and Union Territories (UTs) may utilise and further strengthen 'Women Safety' infrastructure which has been instituted across the country in last few years, both for safety of women in public places as also for speeding up probe of crimes against women and the judicial process to bring offenders to justice quickly.

In its conclusion, the NTF report said implementation of these recommendations would need to allow flexibility in terms of size, scale and sophistication of the HCEs and cannot always be uniform for all.

"Accordingly, committees may be constituted and SOPs (standard operating procedures) may be developed appropriately as may be required at different levels of HCEs for implementation of the recommendations," it said.

The task force has said monitoring mechanisms may also be devised accordingly for implementation of the recommendations and the Centre, states and UT administration may ensure that adequate support is provided to all HCEs in this regard.