For more updates follow Grant Thornton Bharat on WhatsApp
Building a safer healthcare ecosystem in India
Healthcare worker safety in India has emerged as one of the most significant challenges facing the country's healthcare system with 69% of doctors facing workplace violence (WPV). Doctors, nurses, paramedics, and other healthcare professionals undertake patient care, often working in highly stressful environments characterised by resource constraints, overcrowding, and emotionally charged situations. However, incidents of violence, intimidation, verbal abuse, and physical assault have increasingly become a disturbing reality across healthcare settings.
Recent evidence indicates that a significant proportion of healthcare workers in India have experienced some form of workplace violence, ranging from verbal harassment to physical attacks. Such incidents not only impacts the safety and dignity of healthcare workers but also compromise patient care, disrupt hospital operations, and weaken people’s trust in the healthcare system.
Therefore, India must make the safety, security, and well-being of doctors and healthcare workers a national priority as it works towards its healthcare and development goals.
The growing incidence of violence against healthcare workers in India stems from a range of systemic challenges. Overstretched medical infrastructure, long waiting times, overcrowded facilities, high treatment costs, staff shortages, lack of communication leading to unrealistic expectations about treatment outcomes, and misinformation amplified by sensational reporting often increase tensions in the system. Almost half of reported violent incidents occur in critical care areas such as intensive care units (ICUs), where clinical uncertainty and emotional stress are particularly high. In many cases, lack of communication or perceived delays in care frustrate patients' relatives and attendants, leading to confrontations and acts of violence. These incidents do not always indicate individual outbursts but highlight broader challenges in healthcare delivery, public awareness, and institutional preparedness.
India's public healthcare infrastructure plays a key role in healthcare worker safety. Government hospitals usually manage large patient volumes with limited resources. In many facilities, healthcare professionals are required to attend to hundreds of patients daily, in a limited medical setup. The number of patients also leave them with little time for meaningful doctor-patient interactions.
Public healthcare institutions often encounter challenges such as overcrowded emergency departments, staff shortage of staff, limited resources, inadequate infrastructure, fragmented care pathways, and delays in service delivery. These conditions can frustrate patients and their families, who may wrongly blame individual doctors and healthcare workers for systemic issues, increasing the risk of violence and aggression in healthcare settings.
Therefore, strengthening healthcare infrastructure, improving workforce availability, and expanding access to affordable care are essential steps towards reducing conflict within healthcare environments.
The Violence Prevention Act (VPA) has been introduced in several Indian states to provide legal protection to healthcare professionals against assault Public healthcare institutions often face challenges such as overcrowded emergency departments, staff shortages, limited resources, inadequate infrastructure, fragmented care pathways, and delays in service delivery. These pressures can frustrate patients and their families, who may wrongly blame individual healthcare professionals for systemic issues, increasing the risk of violence and aggression in healthcare settings. and harassment.
These laws generally criminalise:
However, different states have different versions regarding the scope of protection, penalties, and enforcement means. While some states have adopted stronger provisions, others have limited or no healthcare-specific protection laws. The uneven implementation of VPAs across states has created a fragmented legal framework. This highlights the need for a consistent national approach that provides uniform protection for healthcare workers across India.
The proposed Healthcare Professionals and Clinical Establishments Bill 2025 tries to fill the gap and is an important step towards establishing a unified legal framework to protect healthcare professionals.
The Bill aims to address rising concerns about workplace violence by introducing strong safeguards, stricter penalties, and greater institutional accountability. It seeks to recognise assaults on healthcare workers as cognisable offences, increase penalties for violence and serious harm, protect healthcare workers from physical, verbal, and digital harassment, establish mandatory reporting mechanisms, strengthen grievance redressal systems, and ensure that institutions take responsibility for the safety of healthcare workers. The proposed legislation strengthens healthcare worker protection to support safe, reliable healthcare delivery and improve patient welfare.
A zero-tolerance policy in healthcare signals that violence, threats, intimidation and harassment against healthcare professionals will not be tolerated under any circumstances. Healthcare set-ups in other countries, such as the NHS in the UK, have successfully adopted this approach by combining legal enforcement with strong institutional policies. To be effective, a zero-tolerance framework should prominently display anti-violence notices, ensure immediate reporting of incidents, enable rapid intervention, coordinate with law enforcement agencies, protect whistleblowers and victims, and enforce consistent disciplinary action against offenders. These measures help create a culture of accountability and reinforce that hospitals are places of healing and must remain safe for both patients and healthcare professionals.
Professional indemnity is a key aspect of protecting healthcare workers. As medico-legal scrutiny increases, doctors need adequate financial and legal protection to manage professional liability risks. Many countries now require professional indemnity coverage as a condition for clinical practice, and adopting similar measures can strengthen India’s healthcare protection framework. By reducing medico-legal uncertainty, indemnity coverage allows healthcare professionals to focus on delivering quality patient care rather than practising defensive medicine.
A future-ready healthcare safety framework should combine legal reforms, institutional preparedness, technology, and public awareness. Governments can strengthen protection through nationally standardised healthcare worker safety laws that provide consistent safeguards across states. Healthcare institutions should implement mandatory security standards, surveillance systems, emergency alert mechanisms, and access controls to create safer workplaces. They should also support healthcare workers through mental health programmes, workplace wellness initiatives, and measures to prevent burnout. Technology can further enhance safety through digital incident reporting systems, emergency response platforms, and real-time security monitoring. At the same time, institutions should build trust through communication training, patient engagement programmes, and transparent grievance redressal mechanisms. Underpinning these efforts should be a healthcare worker-centred approach to governance that recognises healthcare professionals as critical national assets and ensures they receive the protection, dignity, and support they deserve.
Protecting healthcare professionals is essential to building a resilient, patient-centric healthcare system. Improving doctor safety, strengthening healthcare worker protection laws, enhancing hospital safety and security, and preventing workplace violence in healthcare are not just policy goals — they are critical to delivering quality healthcare. Governments, healthcare institutions, professional associations, and civil society must work together to create a safe environment where healthcare workers can serve with confidence and dignity. By strengthening legal protections, investing in safer infrastructure, implementing preventive measures, and building trust between patients and healthcare providers, India can develop a healthcare system that protects those who dedicate their lives to caring for others
We are pleased to present the July 2026 edition of The Tax Controversy Chronicle - Grant Thornton Bharat’s quarterly publication that spotlights key judicial developments across direct tax, indirect tax, FEMA, and transfer pricing.
Grant Thornton Bharat’s PolicyCast is your window into policy, tax, and regulatory developments. Each episode features expert perspectives on issues that matter to businesses, individuals, and the wider economy.
Boards need an AI implementation plan that defines outcomes, ownership, data safeguards, budgets, and monitoring mechanisms. The risks, from data leakage and vendor exposure to bias, hallucinations and regulatory gaps, must be built into the strategy from the start Not too long ago, at a quarterly Board meeting of a conglomerate, the group CFO spoke with conviction about the “AI agenda”.
