The Karnataka Govt. has asked the centre to come up with a new policy to protect doctors, nurses, ASHA workers In light of the recent assault on healthcare workers in Bangalore’s Padarayanapura.
The order passed by a Division Bench of Chief Justice Abhay Shreeniwas Oka and Justice BV Nagarathna stated,
“What is more important is the issue of providing adequate police protection to the doctors, nurses, paramedical staff and Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) workers. The State Government must place on record a policy decision taken regarding providing adequate protection to the doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, ASHA workers, etc. It must be clarified whether the State has any policy to provide armed police constables for protection of all the health workers. The State will also have to place on record what steps it proposes to take to prevent such incidents. The reason is that the safety of the doctors, nurses, paramedical staff, ASHA workers, etc. is of paramount importance in the battle against Covid-19. The State must come out with the policy which applies across the State for protecting this class of citizens who are on the forefront in the battle against Covid-19.”
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The availability of Personal Protection Equipment (PPE) kits for medical personnel who were on the frontlines of the fight against COVID-19 was also observed. It opined that though the state had placed on record the various steps taken to procure and manufacture PPE kits, there had been no response on whether such equipment was made available across the state to healthcare facilities such as Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and other facilities at the grass-roots level.
The Additional Solicitor General of India stated that the Centre had recently distributed 2,83,910 PPE kits and about 20 lakh N-95 masks to various states.
The court sought clarification on this aspect and stated:
“Even the learned Additional Solicitor General of India will also take instruction on the aspect of the Government E-Marketplace (GEM) Portal and state whether it can be thrown open to private health care workers to enable private health care workers to buy PPE Kits and other equipment.”
Advocate Shridhar Prabhu had also told the Court that salaries of paramedical workers and ASHA workers in the state have still not been released. In this regard, the Court held,
“we expect the State to ensure that no nurses, paramedical staff or ASHA workers are deprived of their salaries”, and further directed the State to respond in the issue”.
The court also noted about the domestic violence cases in lockdown and asked the govt. to release the helpline. The Court asked the state government to file its reply to a plea pertaining to the breach of social distancing guidelines at a wedding ceremony recently held at the house of a prominent political leader
Read Orders here:
