Bhubaneswar, April 5: The state government today directed all district collectors to initiate measures to prevent law and order problems at health care institutions, in the wake of a strike by junior doctors at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack last week.

The medics had protested against the assault on a junior doctor by the relatives of a patient.

Health secretary Pramod Kumar Meherda today wrote to the collectors asking them to install closed-circuit television (CCTV) cameras at vital locations of the hospitals and introduce visitor passes for the indoor patients and their attendants.

He also directed them to regulate the entry of the general public and their vehicles and issue ID cards to all regular and casual employees of the hospital and regulate the entry.

Meherda suggested these steps "in view of the increasing untoward situations on the premises of health institutions like manhandling of doctors and staff".

Last week, the junior doctors at the SCB Medical College and Hospital had launched cease work following an assault on a doctor on duty by relatives of a patient, who died on March 27 night. Finally, the strike was called off following assurance by the state government to provide security to doctors and paramedics on duty.

On March 2, a paediatrician working with the Khurda district headquarters hospital was allegedly abducted by relatives of a 19-month-old baby boy, who died in the hospital. The doctor was freed after two hours.

Last year on August 19, a doctor in Balasore district headquarters hospital was assaulted by the relatives of a patient. This was the second consecutive incident in the week. A doctor on duty at the Puri district headquarters hospital had to face mob fury on August 17 night.

The Odisha Medical Service Association had threatened to boycott duty if the government did not take steps to ensure safety and security of doctors on duty.

The association leaders alleged that the state government had failed to implement the Orissa Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2009. The act provides stringent penal provision of imprisonment up to three years and a fine up to Rs 50,000.

The spate of untoward incidents had prompted the then health secretary, Arti Ahuja, to write to the state's home secretary Asit Tripathy on August 19, urging him to ensure safety of the working doctors.

Ahuja had said in her letter: "In recent months, it has been observed that doctors are being manhandled on the pretext of wrong treatment. This has led to a feeling of insecurity amongst doctors and other staff working in the health institutions throughout the state."

Ahuja had urged the home secretary to ask police stations to include the provisions of the act in the FIR. She had also suggested opening of police outposts at all referral hospitals, district headquarters and sub-divisional hospitals in view of the growing manhandling of doctors.