Multiple medics’ associations on Thursday renewed calls on the Centre for comprehensive legislation to curb violence against healthcare workers amid anger triggered by the death of a doctor in Kerala after being stabbed by a man in police custody brought for treatment.

The Indian Public Health Association and the Organised Medicine Academic Guild have also demanded that police adopt the same safety protocols when they bring prisoners to healthcare institutions that they do when they present prisoners before magistrates.

Vandana Das, a house surgeon at the taluk hospital in Kottarakkara in Kollam district, died after a man in police custody brought to the hospital for treatment allegedly grabbed a pair of scissors and stabbed her several times early on Wednesday.

The incident has fuelled fresh anger among doctors, some of whom had expressed their disappointment over the Centre’s decision not to proceed with the proposedlegislation drafted by the Union health ministry in 2019 specifically to discourage violence against healthcare workers.

“We now intend to press for a comprehensive legislation to discourage attacks on healthcare workers, whether by hooligans or criminals,” said Sanghamitra Ghosh, president of the IPHA, a nationwide body of public health and community medicine experts.

In a statement released on Thursday, the IPHA said it was in the process of preparing recommendations to the central government to institute a specific central law applicable across the country “to prevent such ghastly incidents”.

The IPHA said it would ask for legislation that would also prescribe the punishment of police personnel in case they fail to protect healthcare workers on duty, “including but not limited to dismissal from service and imprisonment”.

“The health ministry is duty-bound to enact legislation to protect healthcare workers,” said IshwarGilada, secretary-general of the OMAG, an umbrella entity of 15 medical associations with a collective membership of over 2,50,000 postgraduate doctors.