PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has promulgated the long-awaited law to ensure protection of healthcare workers against violence during their duty hours as well as patients’ rights and confidentiality during treatment in hospitals.

A notification issued by Dr Shahid Yunis, the director general of health services, ordered regional directors, district health officers, medical superintendents and medical teaching institutions to comply with Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Service Providers and Facilities (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2020, to safeguard healthcare service providers, patients and establishments against unlawful activities disrupting healthcare services.

They have been instructed that the Act should be widely circulated to all healthcare facilities across the province to report incidents of violence, damage to property or disruption of healthcare services to the coordination section at directorate general health services, Peshawar, for immediate enforcement of the law.

The notification has also sought details about number of incidents and FIRs lodged with police to ensure strict compliance of the law in their respective jurisdictions and further dissemination to health facilities for information and implementation.

The Act also safeguards rights of patients

A separate notification, issued by Health Secretary Shahidullah Khan, asked directorate-general health services to consolidate the information and furnish it to health department for record, monitoring and further necessary action.

Officials, meanwhile, said that the same law was passed by provincial assembly in 2020 but it remained in limbo despite demands by healthcare workers for its enforcement.

Healthcare providers have been observing strikes against non-enforcement of the law to protect them against violence by people in hospitals.

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 health workers so that patients could get unhindered treatment.

Under the law, the violators would face a 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 a fine of up to Rs50,000.

Its sub-section-1 says that the offender shall be liable to pay to a 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 to 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.

Health professionals have appreciated the department for enforcement of the law. On September 10, a row between the staffers of TB control programme and Hayatabad Medical Complex led to physical bouts between them and subsequent strikes that prompted the health department to implement the law.

Provincial Doctors, Association, Young Doctors Association, Malgari Doctoran and Insaf Doctors Forum have appreciated the government’s decision to implement the law, saying it will protect doctors as well as the patients against violence.

Under the law, patients have the right to seek complete record of their treatment while those resorting to violence against health workers will face legal action.

Officials said that health sector reforms unit (HSRU) was working to frame rules that would give an end to strikes and protests by health workers.

The department had finalised the law with input from Khyber Medical University after collection of data regarding violence from different hospitals in the country, they said.

Published in Dawn, September 21st, 2025