PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is enacting a law to protect health workers as well patients and their attendants from violence and prevent loss to the property and ensure interrupted provision of healthcare to the sick people at the hospitals.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Service Providers and Facilities (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2019, will come into force at once and will cover the whole province, according to proposed law which is presently being vetted by law department.

Health Secretary Dr Syed Farooq Jamil told Dawn that they had taken inputs from all stakeholders including doctors, paramedics, nurses, legal experts and civil society organisations to ensure an effective law for the ultimate benefit of the people.

Piece of proposed legislation being vetted by law dept

“We have ensured protection of hospitals’ staff as well as rights of the patients in the proposed law, which will be presented before the cabinet for approval prior to tabling it in the provincial assembly,” he said. He said that the piece of legislation contained punishments for violators including both health professionals and people with main focus on making the patients’ care effective.

“It has been observed that incidents of violence hamper healthcare services at the hospitals in which patients remain at the receiving end,” said the health secretary.

He said that recommendations of International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), which was supporting the government’s efforts for prevention of violence in hospitals, were also included in the proposed law.

“The ICRC has been campaigning to support the government to take steps for the protection of the health workers and stop disturbance of patients’ care. We are enacting the law for the purpose of ensuring violence-free atmosphere at the health facilities,” said the health secretary.

He said that the proposed law was drafted after numerous incidents of violence in hospitals. “It is hoped that once the law is passed and enforced, the benefits would trickle down to the masses,” he added.

Meanwhile, ICRC continues to scale up public awareness regarding the safety of hospital workers for providing better treatment services to the patients.

On July 22, the ICRC launched a countrywide campaign Barosa Karein (Trust them) to inform the people about the harms caused by violence in the hospitals and its impact on the patients.

Public service messages about the consequences of violence in hospitals will be broadcast on TV, radio and social media. These messages reflect the research conducted to understand the situation that health workers face and how best to reach people.

During the campaign, media will be used about the significance of non-violent attitude in the hospitals. Last year, ICRC conducted a study in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s designated hospitals in collaboration with Khyber Medical University that showed the magnitude of violence in the hospitals and recommended measures to stop the same for the sake of uninterrupted care of patients.

According to it, verbal violence was 50 per cent while 23.7 per cent saw physical assault that caused worry among 61per cent health workers of whom 88 per cent have seen multiple incidents.

The campaign, which is part of the ICRC’s Health Care in Danger (HCiD) initiative addressing the issue of violence against health-care personnel and services, is meant to bring about change in public behaviour at the healthcare facilities to ensure safety of professionals against violence from the relatives of patients.

Published in Dawn, July 25th, 2019