Hospitals and health care institutions must be declared as ‘protected zones’ by the State government. Stressing this demand, doctors of Indian Medical Association Tamil Nadu State Branch here submitted a petition to Collector M. Ravikumar here on Monday.
In the petition, they said doctors should not be found negligent for damage caused by a defective product or manufacturer’s fault and it was time the State government issued necessary ‘government order’ in this regard. Doctors were often under threat when deaths occurred due to treatment failure and aggrieved relatives of victims even damaged hospital infrastructure, the doctors said. In spite of best treatment by doctors, deaths occurred, inevitably. Such a dangerous trend was spreading and every hospital death is perceived as a source of money extortion by anti-social elements. Over the last two months, ten such incidents had occurred in the State, they added in the petition. P. Kumaran, secretary, Tuticorin Branch of IMA and other doctors were present.