Four sub-committees to help National Task Force on doctors' safety: Health Ministry

New Delhi: The Health Ministry on Thursday announced forming four sub-groups to look into various aspects of security, working conditions and infrastructure in hospitals as a part of a national task force’s effort to prepare a guideline.

The four sub-groups will be on strengthening infrastructure and security systems in hospitals, revamping the working conditions and boosting the legal framework for better protection of doctors and healthcare workers.

The sub-groups are to submit their recommendations along with action plans to the National Task Force within three weeks, the ministry says in an order.

The task force on women’s safety was created last month on the direction of the Supreme Court, which suo motu took up the RG Kar rape and murder incident and asked the government to improve the safety and security of healthcare workers in hospitals across the country.

Besides experts and officials from the Union Health Ministry, all the sub-groups will also have representatives from the state governments. For instance, the subgroup on strengthening the security systems will have officials from Kerala, Karnataka and Odisha as its members.