Kochi: The state government has informed the Kerala High Court that the health department will come with the list of hospitals to be brought under the State Industrial Security Force (SISF) security cover. The measure has been pushed to curb attacks on medical professionals in the state.
A Division Bench comprising Justice Devan Ramachandran and Justice Kauser Edappagath was considering the case relating to the murder of Dr Vandana Das, a 23-year-old house surgeon, by an injured man brought to the Kottarakkara Taluk Hospital by the police. The government told the court that it was of the view that the private hospitals could make their own arrangements without relying upon the SISF. To this, the court directed the government to actively consider providing of security cover to all hospitals, government or private, through SISF.
The high court directed the government to hear the representatives of the Kerala Judicial Officers Association, the Kerala University of Health Sciences (KUHS), the IMA – Kerala Chapter, Kerala Private Hospital Association, the Kerala Govt Medical Officers Association (KGMOA), and the Kerala Govt Medical College Teacher Association (KGMCT), while finalizing protocols for production of persons from the custody of the police, Live Law reported. Though the government informed that it would require at least a month for the consultaions, the court said, ‘the response of the government shall be made available to us as far as possible, by the next posting date’.
The senior government pleader placed before the court a memo which produced the Ordinance to amend the Kerala Healthcare Service Persons and Healthcare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2012. The Ordinance was notified on Wednesday. Earlier, Kerala Police over the death case informed the court that there are not enough police to man all hospitals but the SISF can be engaged. However, the new development suggests that not all hospitals will be under SISF security cover.
The health department will decide which government hospitals should be under SISF security cover. The deployment will happen in a phased manner. The state government also informed that it will deploy SISF as soon as the health department issues a notification regarding the hospitals. Meanwhile, private hospitals can also avail of SISF security cover. However, the management concerned will have to bear the cost of deploying the personnel.
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