PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government is finalising guidelines to enforce the law passed by the provincial assembly three years ago to ensure protection of healthcare workers against violence during their duty, according to sources.

The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Service Providers and Facilities (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2020, was passed by provincial assembly but it has not been implemented so far.

Provincial Doctors Association (PDA) has been observing a strike against non-acceptance of their demands including enforcement of the law to protect the healthcare professionals against violence by people at hospitals.

Officials said that they were currently working on guidelines in accordance with the law and framing rules and regulations to go ahead with the implementation of the piece of legislation. The law is meant to ensure that the perpetrators of violence get punished and the healthcare providers feel safe.

Law for the purpose enacted three years ago has not been enforced so far

“The guidelines are almost finalised and one last meeting with key stakeholders is expected to take place next month,” they told this scribe.

They said that there were confusions that were likely to be cleared in the upcoming meeting. “The law has been passed after search by Khyber Medical University, health department and International Committee of Red Cross regarding acts of violence being committed against staff of hospitals and the reasons leading to aggression, mostly by relatives of the patients,” they added.

Officials said that approval would be sought from the high-ups of health department after the guidelines were finalised. “We are also working on designing an incident reporting form for it where victim can record the details of incidents,” they added.

An office-bearer of PDA said that they had welcomed the law enacted in view of the endless series of brutal acts against health workers in hospitals. Health workers including doctors, nurses and paramedics were observing strikes in healthcare institutions owing to the attacks that impacted patient care.

He said that health workers feared for their lives during duty hours owing to violence by relatives of patients under the misconception that their patients were mistreated. He said that the law was passed after years of struggle and incorporation of several amendments to improve safety of health workers but delaying its implementation was creating unrest among the stakeholders.

Officials working on the implementation of the law said that incidents of violence prompted health department to come with a law to give protection to the health workers so that patients could get unhindered treatment. Under the law, the violators would face heavy fine and jail term.

Under section-3 of the law, any act of violence against healthcare providers or damage to property in a healthcare service institution is punishable. Anyone, who commits any act in contravention of it, will be punished with imprisonment of three years along with fine of up to Rs50,000.

Its sub-section-1 says that the offender shall be liable to pay to the healthcare service institution a compensation double of the amount of purchase price of medical equipment damaged and the loss caused to the property as may be determined by the court trying the offence.

If the offender does not pay the compensation under sub-section-2, the said sum shall be recovered as if it is an arrear of land revenue due from him. Any offence committed under section 3 shall be cognisable and non-bailable, it says.

Besides providing protection of healthcare providers, the law also makes it binding on healthcare institutions to give complete information of medical treatment to patients.

It shall be the responsibility of each healthcare service institution to furnish, in writing, complete information about medical treatment provided by such healthcare service institutions, to the patients, who seek treatment in the said institutions or to their designated relatives, says the law.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2023