The much awaited Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Amendment Bill, 2023, intended to replace the ordinance on the same passed by the Cabinet in May this year, was the first legal business that the legislature attended to when the ninth session of the 15th Kerala Assembly met on Tuesday.
The ordinance amending the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2012 by including stringent penal provisions against the perpetrators of violence on hospitals/doctors had been passed by the Cabinet in May this year. The ordinance was occasioned by the murder of young house surgeon Vandana Das by a patient at the Kottarakara taluk hospital .
The discussion on the Bill ranged from the failing Kerala model of health and the frailties of the State’s health system to apprehensions that the Bill could turn out to be too one-sided and that it needed to include provisions protecting patient rights also.
