The draft of the new medical personnel protectionBill, which was approved by the cabinet of chief ministerHemant Sorenearlier this week, has provisioned a maximum jail term of up to three years and a penalty of Rs 50,000 on patients and their kin, who are found guilty of assaulting medical service personnel and vandalizing government and private hospital properties.
The Indian Medical Associations Jharkhand chapter, which has welcomed the bill, claimed that the bills passage will help the states doctors to attend to their patients without the fear of being assaulted and also plug the influx of patients into the tertiary care centres in the cities from the districts and rural areas.