New med bill seeks jail for assault on docs

Ranchi: The draft of the new medical personnel protection Bill, which was approved by the cabinet of chief minister Hemant Soren earlier this week, has provisioned a maximum jail term of up to three years and a penalty of Rs 50,000 on patients and their kin, who are found guilty of assaulting medical service personnel and vandalizing government and private hospital properties.
The Indian Medical Association’s Jharkhand chapter, which has welcomed the bill, claimed that the bill’s passage will help the state’s doctors to attend to their patients without the fear of being assaulted and also plug the influx of patients into the tertiary care centres in the cities from the districts and rural areas.
“The bill is being looked at as detrimental to the patients' interests. In reality, it is patient-friendly as well,” said Dr Pradeep Kumar Singh, the secretary of the IMA Jharkhand chapter.
The bill has been named Personnel Associated to Jharkhand Medical Services, Medical Services and Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill of 2023.