World Medical Association writes to PM Modi seeking intervention over attacks on doctors

New Delhi [India], April 11 : The World Medical Association (WMA) wrote a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his intervention over attacks on physicians and other health personnel in the country, said the Indian Medical Association (IMA) on Monday.
The letter comes in the wake of a recent suicide of a physician in India.
In a letter to the Prime Minister, the President of the WMA Dr Heidi Stensmyren, as quoted by IMA in an official statement, said that the woman physician died by suicide following the intervention of law enforcement officers and legal action after the death of one of her patients.
"It must be clear that any treatment outcome that is detrimental or fatal must first be properly and professionally examined before conclusions about civil and criminal liability can be made," the letter of Dr Stensmyren to PM Modi reads.
"Utmost attention must be given to an unbiased, scientific correct process in dealing with
unwanted treatment outcomes," it adds.
IMA said that Dr Stensmyren, in her letter, stated that she was "shocked" by the involvement of law enforcement officers and described this as "an apparently ambiguous legal situation".
She said the WMA supported the Indian Medical Association in their request to the Indian
government to enact unambiguous and effective lawful means to stop the attacks on physicians and other health personnel.
"Countering non-negligent treatment errors with prosecution in the first place is not only unjust but will also have grave consequences for the treatment of the population as it will lead to risk-avoiding, defensive medicine and as such to reduced treatment options for seriously ill or endangered patients," the letter states.