New Delhi: Doctors back to work. We are aware of your concerns. Measures are being taken on how to ensure security. But hurry back to work. Otherwise, there will be problems in institutes like AIIMS where appointments are taken much in advance in various fields including medical-surgery. If the date is missed, patients will have to wait again for a long time. Loss of life due to lack of treatment is not desirable. This message was given by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud himself on Tuesday to the protesting doctors demanding safety in the RG Kar Hospital case. Not only that, the Supreme Court has constituted a 14-member National Task Force for the protection of doctors across the country. The Supreme Court also ordered the deployment of paramilitary force or CISF at RG Kar Hospital. The court has scheduled the next hearing of this case tomorrow, Thursday.
Chief Justice Saaf, while observing the hearing of the self-initiated case, said, “This incident in the Kolkata hospital is not only a case of horrific murder. It has brought to the fore the failure of the system in the safety of the doctors of the entire country. We can’t wait for another shocking rape. For that reason, even though the bench of the Chief Justice of Calcutta High Court heard the case, we decided to take spontaneous action. In this context, the judges also cited the examples of Bihar, Telangana and Maharashtra. It was then that the National Task Force was announced. It will be headed by DG Surgeon Vice Admiral Aarti Sarin of Naval Medical Services. The committee will have eight other eminent doctors, along with the Union Cabinet Secretary, Home and Health Secretaries. They will submit an interim report within the next two weeks. Final report to be given within two months.
The Association of Doctors, a voluntary organization, appealed to the Supreme Court on behalf of the doctors who are suffering from insecurity. Their lawyer told the court that RG Kar Hospital has accommodation for 700 resident doctors. But since the rape-murder incident, most of them are suffering from fear. Left the hostel. Now Sakul has 30-40 female and 60-70 male doctors. On August 19, a resident doctor sent an email to Kolkata Police seeking security. But after 22 hours passed, there was no solution. Tushar Mehta, a lawyer of the central government and the country’s solicitor general, proposed to hand over the responsibility of hospital security to the central forces after hearing the matter. The Chief Justice also accepted the proposal. According to the instructions, the central forces will be in charge of guarding. Adequate force should be deployed. It has also been mentioned in the order that state government lawyer Kapil Sibal has no objection in this regard.
The apex court directed the National Task Force to prepare an action plan for the safety of health care professionals. The 13-point proposal includes restrictions on the movement of anyone other than patients up to a certain area, adequate lighting and CCTV cameras everywhere, bag checking, provision of transportation for health workers at night. The chief justice has repeatedly requested the doctors to return to work besides enforcing the necessary safety measures in all government hospitals of the country. However, the government doctors’ organization ‘Medical Service Center’ is stubborn in the movement. Secretary of the organization Dr. Anshuman Mitra Saf said, “The initiative of the Supreme Court is welcome. But the protest will continue till the exemplary punishment of those involved in the RG tax case and the real problems of the doctors are solved. Our slogan is – No Safety, No Duty.’
Supreme Court ordered doctors to return to work
