The Committee on Social Policy of the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan approved amendments to some legislative acts in the first reading.
The document was developed to protect health workers during the performance of their official duties and prevent violence and attacks against them.
«The mass media regularly cover cases of attacks on health workers. One gets the impression that this is no longer an exceptional case, but a general trend. «Attacks on doctors, including those covered in the media, often indicate a lack of adequate protection for them in the performance of their professional functions,» the background statement to the bill says.
According to the initiators, the attack takes the doctor out of mental balance, causes physical and moral suffering.
A new article «Obstruction of the legitimate professional activities of medical workers» is being introduced into the Criminal Code.
So, according to the changes:
- Obstructing the legitimate professional activities of medical workers in the performance of their official duties with the threat of violence, causing minor harm to health, minor material (property) damage is punishable by correctional labor from two months to a year or a fine from 20,000 to 50,000 soms;
- The same act with the use of violent actions, resulting in less serious or serious harm to health, causing major damage is punishable by a fine from 50,000 to 100,000 soms or imprisonment from one to three years;
- The same act, which entailed especially grave harm to health, causing especially large damage, is punishable by imprisonment from three to five years;
- The same act, which entailed especially grave harm to the health of the patient, is punishable by imprisonment from five to eight years.
According to amendments to the Code of Offences:
- Illegal interference of persons who do not have special competence in the activities of doctors, as well as obstruction of their legitimate professional activities by showing disrespect, insult and humiliation, expressed in the use of obscene language, display of indecent gestures (signs) or objects, indecent behavior, including through mass media or telecommunication networks means entail a fine on individuals in the amount of 10,000 soms.
The Law «On the Protection of the Health of Citizens in the Kyrgyz Republic» provides that health workers have the right to insurance for cases of injury or trauma inflicted on them by patients, their relatives or other third parties in the performance of their official or professional duties.
«Thus, it is necessary to legislatively guarantee medical workers state protection of their honor and dignity, personal inviolability and ensuring a sufficient level of safety of professional activity, which is the most important condition in the implementation of public health protection tasks in the core sector,» the initiators said.
