Mumbai: Chief minister Eknath Shinde has written to the Union health ministry regarding the need for a Central Healthcare Protection Act to prevent violence against the medical fraternity . "This law will not only help in preventing such incidents, but will also give a sense of security to our doctors, so that they can discharge their duties without any fear,'' he wrote in the letter that also mentioned that he had spoken to the Union health minister J P Nadda in this regard. While the medical fraternity has been firm about a central Act, the Centre has once before rejected the need for such a law as 21 states already have such legislation.
However, Dr Rajeev Joshi of the Medicolegal Society of India, which has filed a petition in this regard, said, "The central law would ensure uniformity and equality for doctors whether they are in Maharashtra or West Bengal.'' Although Maharashtra was the first state in the country to pass such legislation, the Maharashtra Prevention of Violence Against Healthcare Professional and Protection of Property of Healthcare Institutions Act, in 2010, doctors say it hasn't been effective. Dr Joshi, who spoke at the Supreme Court's suo moto hearing of the rape and murder of a Kolkata doctor, said that 1,318 cases were registered under the Maharashtra Act between 2015 and 2020, but there have only been four convictions.
He said 14 years after the Act was passed, he still got calls from police personnel and doctors about the sections under which offe.