Too little, too late: IMA on forming panel to mull on law to protect medics

The health ministry's decision to form a panel for deliberating on a central law to protect healthcare workers is "too little and too late" as it just needs political will to bring a legislation on the matter, IMA chief Dr R V Asokan said on Friday. As resident doctors across the country held protests over the alleged rape and killing of a trainee women doctor in a state-run medical college and hospital in Kolkata, demanding a central law to protect them, Asokan told PTI that the government is reluctant to acknowledge that there is violence against doctors and hospitals. "But you cannot run away from the reality," he said. There is a draft bill that was prepared in 2019 after stakeholders' consultation but it never went to Parliament, he pointed out. "There is a thinking in the government to refer it to an expert committee to look at the possibility of a bill, but that will be too little and too late. Because, everything is in place. It only needs political will to push the button,