PESHAWAR: The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Provincial Doctors Association has raised the alarm about threats to the lives of healthcare workers in hospitals and demanded the immediate implementation of the law passed by the provincial assembly four years ago for their safety at work. “Last month, the additional assistant commissioner of Saddar area in Peshawar wrote a letter to police for the deployment of police at Category D hospital Badhaber area in large numbers. The health workers aren’t safe under the current weak law and order situation in the region,” the PDA said in a statement. It added that hospital staff members worked in fear but the government was not bothered about their safety. It said that the medical superintendent of the hospital was directing the staff to perform duties at the behest of the local MPA without taking into account the law and order situation and warned of protest if the law concerning security of health workers was not implemented. Demands enforcement of law for safety of those employees at work The PDA said that the government had passed “The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Healthcare Service Providers and Facilities (Prevention of Violence and Damage to Property) Act, 2020,” four years ago to prevent violence in hospitals but that legislation had yet to be implemented. It added that the government had started work to prepare guidelines and enforce the law and ensure protection of healthcare workers during their duty, but there was no progress on it yet. Health officials told Dawn that the incidents of violence had prompted their department to come up with a law to protect health workers and grant unhindered treatment to patients. They said the workers had been resorting to strike whenever their community’s members faced violence that caused suffering for patients. The officials said violators of the law would face heavy fines and jail terms. Section 3 of the law says that any act of violence against healthcare providers or damage to property in a healthcare service institution is punishable, whereas anyone, committing any act in contravention of it, will be punished with imprisonment of three years along with fine of up to Rs50,000. Its sub-section 1 says that the offender shall be liable to pay to the 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 of the law shall be cognisable and non-bailable. Besides protecting health professionals, the law also aimed at protecting the rights of patients as well by making it binding on healthcare institutions to give complete information of medical treatment to patients. According to the law, 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. The official sources said that the health department had prepared guidelines and were framing rules and regulations to go ahead with the implementation of the law meant to ensure that the perpetrators of violence are punished and healthcare providers feel safe at work. They said the department wanted to enact the law in view of the endless series of brutal acts against health workers in hospitals. The sources said health workers feared for their lives during duty hours due to violence by relatives of patients under the false impression that their patients were mistreated.