Doctors’ safety, security to be mandatory criteria for med college recognition

New Delhi: Medical colleges in India will henceforth be recognised only if they meet new safety and security rules set by the medical education regulator, according to an official aware of the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The development comes on the backdrop of a nationwide agitation against the gruesome rape and murder of a young female doctor in Kolkata that is refusing to die down.

To qualify for recognition by the National Medical Commission (NMC), medical colleges will be necessarily required to include safety features such as CCTV cameras, trained security and female guards across the premises, emergency control rooms, and emergency alarm bells, among other safety measures.

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These measures were earlier advisory in nature. “Right now, only advisories are being issued to the medical colleges, but most of the colleges don't take it seriously and do not follow the compliance,” said the official cited above, adding that the new rules will soon be notified in a gazetted notification.

“NMC accessors can assess these parameters during inspection once they become part of regulation,” the official added.

Significantly, the new rules will apply to both government-owned and private hospitals, as well as both upcoming and existing colleges, the official said.

Queries sent to the Union health ministry, under whose aegis the NMC operates, remained unanswered till press time.

The background

The step comes after the health ministry on 4 September directed all central government hospitals and medical colleges to enhance security measures to ensure a safe environment for healthcare professionals.

In view of the Kolkata case, the Supreme Court had on 20 August ordered the secretaries and directorate generals of police in all states and UTs to put certain basic minimum requirements in medical colleges to assuage the concerns of the doctors for their safety at their workplace.

The apex court had constituted the national task force (NTF) to submit the interim action report within three weeks and final report within three months of the order.

Lat week, Union home secretary Govind Mohan and health secretary Apurva Chandra co-chaired a meeting with chief secretaries and directors-general of police (DGPs) of states on immediate steps taken for safety and security of doctors and healthcare professionals in medical institutions, and has sought action taken report from the state/UT governments before 10 September.

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A study undertaken by IMA last month revealed that around 35% of doctors, mostly female, feel unsafe during night shifts in the hospitals. Around 3,885 medical professionals participated in the study. The findings of the study have been accepted for publication in the IMA’s Kerala Medical Journal in October 2024 issue.

“It is the need of the hour to regulate medical colleges, like what NMC is trying to do,” said Dr Sharad Aggarwal, immediate past president at IMA. “We have urged the NMC to put a major compliance list of adequate safety and security measures for medical students and doctors at the time of giving permission to establish a new medical college and the attached hospital.”

Aggarwal added that measures suggested by IMA include regulation in duty hours, separate duty rooms with attached washrooms, entire corridors to be screened, campus to be validated, sufficient security personnel deployed particularly in emergency and critical care areas, more female guards, and CCTV camera surveillance with recording on the cloud, “because most of the time we have found that CCTV cameras were not working and if at all these were working, there was no provision of recording the past footage”.