Massive spontaneous protests broke out across medical colleges following the brutal murder of a house surgeon at the Taluk Hospital, Kottarakkara, on Wednesday.
Doctors stayed away from work, except emergency services, at all public hospitals, Kollam witnessed a total shut down of hospitals.
Protests broke out at all medical colleges and in many government hospitals as soon as the news broke because the issue of lack of safety at workplaces for doctors has been something the medical fraternity has been constantly bringing to the attention of the government.
Emotional scenes were witnessed at the Medical College Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, where the young doctor’s body was brought for postmortem examination.
Medical students and youth organisations also staged massive protests in front of the Secretariat.
Medicos, who are the main workforce in all government hospitals in the State, were outraged that a young colleague of theirs had to pay with her life for the government’s failure to address systemic issues of security in hospitals. They were also resentful that the taluk hospital did not have facilities to stabilise the victim and that she had to be taken to a private hospital
The Indian Medical Association and the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association raised sharp criticism against the police for bringing in a random person without sufficient precautions to the casualty and for failing to restrain him when he turned violent.
Violence against doctors and hospitals has become so rampant in the State that at least one incidence of violence is reported every few days. In the past three years, over 200 serious incidents of violence against hospitals/doctors have been reported in the State.
On March 17, doctors across the State struck work to protest against a life-threatening attack on a senior cardiologist at Kozhikode and to highlight that police inaction was making a mockery of the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2012.
Doctors were enraged that the Government and the public to a large extent, were “dismissive “ of the innumerable strikes and protests carried out by the medical fraternity over the past few years demanding enhanced security in hospitals.
Following a directive from the High Court, the government issued a GO on August 12, 2021 directing the Director of Medical Education and the Director of Health Services to install CCTVs in all taluk hospitals, district and general hospitals, W&C hospitals, mental health centres and medical colleges in the casualty and out patient department areas and that a feed be given to the police aid post.
It said that paramedical staff be given security training and that all further appointments of security personnel be made only from ex-servicemen society
“A meeting was held almost a year later on July 22, 2022 to discuss the implementation of the GO and a communication sent to DMOs in October. Only six districts even responded to this communication. Following an RTI query on the status of the implementation of the GO, the response given was that the government had not earmarked any funds for enhancing security in hospitals and that hospitals had to find local funds to do the same. The GO thus remains on paper,” says K.V. Babu, a public health activist.
