The Centre on Wednesday directed state authorities to organise security audits in government district hospitals and medical colleges to ensure basic safety measures to protect healthcare workers from violence.

Union home secretary Govind Mohan and health secretary Apurva Chandra, who co-chaired a meeting with state chief secretaries and police officers, also called on hospitals to organise security drills on the lines of fire safety exercises and to upgrade the capacity of hired security personnel.

The meeting with state officials came a day after the first meeting of the National Task Force set up by the health ministry last week under directions of the Supreme Court to address concerns about the safety of healthcare workers in their workplaces.

The court had ordered a task force during hearings relating to the rape and murder of a junior doctor at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Calcutta that had triggered nationwide protests from doctors.

The home and health secretaries have also asked government hospitals to ensure police verification of their contractual and outsourced employees. The joint security audits are to be conducted by hospital authorities along with local district magistrates and superintendents of police.

They also underlined the need for “proper implementation” of state laws to safeguard healthcare workers already in place in 26 state and Union Territories and to widen awareness of existing laws through adequate display of their provisions in
the hospitals.

Hospitals have also been asked to provide security escorts to women doctors and senior residents from the hostel to the hospital during late-night duty hours and to audit spaces and rooms to ensure that unused spaces are not misused by
“undesirable elements."

Mohan asked the state officials to install CCTV cameras in blind spots and regulate access control, particularly in hospitals with high footfalls. Chandra said hospitals should engage patient facilitators to ferry patients on wheelchairs or stretchers to reduce the number of patients’ attendants and lessen the load and stress on security. He also suggested training doctors and healthcare workers on bereavement protocols, especially in the emergency wards.

Some of the actions recommended by the home and health secretaries on Wednesday were part of a 12-point plan released by the health ministry earlier this month for hospitals to upgrade safety. The plan prompted some doctors to flag concerns that many hospitals are unlikely to be able to implement and maintain the additional safety measures at high-efficiency levels without additional finance.