Forces to guard doctors in Mumbai hospitals

The physical attacks on doctors at local administration-run hospitals in Mumbai will soon be a thing of the past. And the doctors can concentrate on their consultations without fearing any untoward incidents on them as the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), which runs these hospitals, has decided to raise a special 500-strong force to protect the doctors at its hospitals at an estimated cost of Rs 8.28 crore.

A decision by the government in this regard comes in the wake of several incidents in which relatives of patients getting physical with resident doctors. The current security system is very poor to check any violence in hospital premises.

The force, which will comprise of 300 men and 200 women, will cost BMC Rs 8.28 crore annually. The BMC controls three major hospitals -- KEM, Sion and Nair - and 14 peripheral health facilities.

M/s Krystal Integrated Services, which has been contracted to provide BMC security guards to cover doctors in such eventualities, has committed to have 500 men and women on duty across various hospitals every single day all year round. The agency has been asked to train its guards to tackle the situations in which the relatives become angry over the death a patient. The BMC has asked the forces to be polite with patient's relatives, while at the same time using force if the need be to protect doctors.

The Maharashtra Resident Doctors' Association (MARD) had brought operations at KEM to a halt for a day on August 24 after a doctor was assaulted by angry relatives of a dead patient. More recently, doctors at V N Desai Hospital struck work on September 15 after doctors failed to revive a 19-year-old boy who had suffered electric shock.