The Bihar Chapter of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has asked the Nitish Kumar government to enact a law or introduce a bill that provides security to the medical professionals and institutions of the state.

While talking with the media persons, IMA’S State unit president Dr Raman Kumar Verma said that although the new government in the state had succeeded in stopping the incidents of kidnapping and demands of extortion from the doctors, but the attacks on doctors and their clinics have increased multifold. Verma believes that the doctors and their clinics have become soft targets of anti-social elements.

"This is crying need of the hour to effect improvement in health care delivery in government, semi government as well as private organisations. It goes without saying that doctors and their establishments have become soft targets of irresponsible and unsocial elements hampering their professional work", said Verma.

It may be here recalled that states like Andhra Pradesh, Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Madhya Pradesh have already enacted such laws in the past.

Verma said that in order to strengthen the communication gap, the doctor-patient relationship needs to be improved quickly.

However, the State Chapter of IMA praised the state government to open three new medical colleges in the state and increase the number of seats by 50 in the existing six medical colleges. Apart from this, the members of the organization also applauded the state government for implementing the Janani-Bal Suraksha yojana which has led to a sharp rise in institutional deliveries in the state.