NEW DELHI, India – Tensions have escalated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) after a failure to report a violent attack on a doctor within the mandated timeframe, as required by the Ministry of Health. The incident at a health center in Ballabgarh has led to mounting outrage among resident doctors, with threats of a potential strike.
The attack occurred late Thursday when a junior doctor was assaulted by a patient’s son amid a medical emergency. The doctor was organizing an ambulance for the patient, who was having a stroke, when assaulted. The son threatened harm to all attending doctors if his father’s condition deteriorated.
Despite the severity of the situation, AIIMS had not registered a formal police report (FIR) concerning the attack even after two days, defying the health ministry’s explicit instructions. These rules, reinforced during a nationwide strike by junior doctors in August, demand the registration of an FIR by institutional heads within six hours of any act of violence against healthcare personnel.
National physician groups including the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA) and the Federation of All India Medical Association (FAIMA), have expressed dismay over the delay and are pressing for rapid legal action.
On Friday, AIIMS officials convened with the village head, local law enforcement officers, and faculty members to address the incident. Nonetheless, no FIR was filed, and sources suggest that officials sought an informal resolution, which was rejected by the Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) at AIIMS.
The RDA has decried the inaction by the institute’s administration as intolerable and insists on the immediate filing of an FIR under the protective statutes of the Haryana Medicare Service Persons and Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act of 2009. They caution that failure to respond adequately may compel them to stop providing medical services in rural areas and to start a full-fledged protest.
Such incidents underscore the broader challenges of safety and security faced by healthcare workers in India, an issue that has come to the forefront in recent years amid reports of increasing violence. Health policy experts argue that ensuring the safety of medical personnel is crucial not just for their protection but also for the effective functioning of health services, particularly in rural and underserved regions where medical resources are already stretched thin.
As the situation develops, the medical community watches closely, hoping for resolutions that not only address the immediate incident but also lead to systemic changes that protect healthcare workers against future violence. The decision by AIIMS could thus set a vital precedent for how such cases are handled nationwide by medical institutions.