A letter written by a lawyer about assaults on doctors attending to COVID-19 related duties was taken up as a PIL petition by Telangana High Court. It will be heard on Wednesday.
The letter by advocate P.S.S. Kailash Nath to Chief Justice Raghvendra Singh Chauhan sought a direction to Home Secretary and Director General of Police to deploy sufficient security personnel at all government and private hospitals. Citing an incident in Gandhi Hospital reported on April 1, the lawyer said a person assaulted a doctor after his sibling died of coronavirus.
Though only one such attack was reported in the State, the Centre instructed all State governments to act tough in all such cases to ensure security of medical fraternity. But Telangana government had not passed any orders complying with the Centre’s direction, the lawyer said.
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Declared as a pandemic, COVID-19 is affecting every part of the globe. In this backdrop, security of doctors, nurses and health workers requires a holistic approach, the lawyer said. As these professionals are running the risk of contracting virus while discharging their duties, they cannot be further burdened with protecting themselves from attacks.
Not just at the hospitals, security coverage should also be extended to doctors and others while they go on door-to-door tests and inquiries to identify primary and secondary contacts, the lawyer said. Personnel of either Central Reserve Police Force or its wing of Rapid Action Force or any other Central security agency should be deployed for doctors, he said.