Doctors’ associations on Friday iterated to the government their demand for proper security in the wake of attacks by attendants of patients.

Back-to-back incidents of attendants of patients clashing with doctors on duty in Nawada and Gaya sparked off the standard demand for security from the associations.

In one of the cases, the interns at Anugrah Narayan Medical College and Hospital called off their strike at the Gaya health hub on Friday, a day after attendants of a burn injury patient clashed with them.

Ajay Kumar, general secretary, Bihar Health Services Association (BHSA), said: “The government needs to depute a special force at the government hospitals to prevent these kinds of untoward incidents. The homeguards provided to the state-run hospitals are incapable of handling the unruly crowd.”

The government enacted the Medical Service Institution and Personal Protection Bill and Clinical Establishment (Registration and Regulation) Act in 2011.

According to its provisions, attack on doctors was a cognisable offence. Kumar, however, said: “The pre-conditions attached to the act only create obstacles in proving that a particular attendant has attacked the doctor. The doctor has to prove that he/she had behaved properly with the patient and also had genuine reasons to refer the patient. The law is useless. Since the law was enacted, out of around 300 instances of doctors being attacked, the provisions of the act have been taken into consideration in only four-five cases.”

Rajiv Ranjan Prasad, president, Indian Medical Association, Bihar, said: “The government should first think about the upgrade of infrastructure in state-run hospitals. In absence of that, doctors cannot provide quality treatment to their patients and they would continue to suffer. Then, the doctors have to face the wrath of the attendants.”