The alarming upsurge in episodes of violence against healthcare workers and vandalism of hospital infrastructure over the last more than 2 decades is frightening. As a backlash, it is reshaping the medics’ response to address medical emergencies and intractable illnesses. According to a report, more than two-thirds of health workers face some kind of violence in their lifetime. Hospitals are places to treat the diseased, the debilitated, and the moribund. Haplessly, they are turning fast into bedlams of chaotic uproar where medics may be abused, vituperated, browbeaten, kicked, bruised, slapped, punched, drubbed, and thrashed without the fear of law.

The brutal lynching of Dr. Deben Dutta by an inebriated mob, the suicide of a young orthopaedic surgeon Dr. Anoop Krishna and brilliant gynaecologist Dr. Archana Sharma after baseless blaming, the assassination of Dr. TR Sethulakshmi, Dr. Vandana Das and recently Dr. Abhaya (altered name) of Kolkata are distressing, doleful, and heart-wrenching. 

The societal frenzy, the prevalent unruliness, the lack of authoritative governing, and the oblivion of the law-enforcing agencies with their added infelicitous mindset and inability to deal with the episode of violence with equitability and fairness have led the water to pass over the heads. Always, there seems to be a terrible tendency to shun responsibility by a simplistic approach of merely preaching sermons and blaming medics for all the atrocities without logically peeping into the root cause.

Despite 25 states having enacted laws to protect healthcare workers from episodes of profession-related violence and vandalism, the continuing savagery, vehemence, and strong-arm tactics very lucidly bespeak their inadequacies or lack of application, and bias or arbitrary interpretation. Therefore, it is the call for a befitting, strict, central legislation with stringent measures to protect healthcare workers from such woes. It should be applied mandatorily and uniformly across the nation in all cases of hospital-related violence. By all means, the offence should be categorized as cognizable and non-bailable.

Any refutation of this claim, as has been witnessed in the past, on the oversimplified and jejune argument that there cannot be different laws for different professions does not seem sound given the highly profession-specific nature of the malady and the government's commitment to protecting specific sections of workers at higher risk of violence viz. police personnel, armed forces, judicial officials and election entourage. Graded security provided to different cadres of politicians is yet another glaring example of profession-specific security arrangement.

Under similar tenants and perceptions, the need for a stringent law and its strict application is highly a justified demand of medical professionals. The enactment of Dr Lorona Breen Healthcare Provider Protection Act-2022 in the United States of America, is yet another testimony to the need for special statutes for vulnerable professionals in an endeavour to nip the bud without letting the situation grow as grave as ours.

Any deviation or side-tracking by asking for personal safety measures deploying bouncers or emergency responding squads (as the trend has begun despite the questionable legality) would amount to marching toward a medieval era and the regime's imperfection.

Enhancing some safety measures by deploying some extra police personnel temporarily at some big institutions, as has been recently ordered at places cannot prove to be more than assuaging tactics to the agitating resident doctors. All segments of health care, including small and medium setups run by single or couple doctors that form the backbone of healthcare providing quality medical services at affordable prices in far-flung rustic areas, deserve to be protected at equal priority by amending law and order situations. The creation of a comprehensive law would be a step forward in safeguarding the life and dignity of those who work tirelessly for the safety of society.

What it should be like? What specific the act should contain, is a subject specific to the law faculties. Since the issue of legalities is increasingly becoming consanguineous to the practice of medicine, a few connoisseurs in the medical fraternity have come out of their shells and developed a dependable legal parlance.

Whatever law is created, the application should be mandatory and binding essentially involving a provision for retributive punishment against violators.