Stabbing renews debate over India hospital safety months after rape and murder of trainee doctor

New Delhi CNN —

A knife attack on a doctor in India has renewed an impassioned debate about whether enough is being done to protect medical staff in the world’s most populous nation’s often crowded and overstretched hospital wards.

Last week, thousands of doctors went on strike, shutting down private hospitals and clinics after a doctor was stabbed while on duty in the southern city of Chennai.

Oncologist Balaji Jaganathan was allegedly attacked by the relative of a patient who was unhappy with his mother’s treatment, local police said. The doctor survived the attack and remains in stable condition.

“How are we supposed to treat patients if we don’t know if we ourselves will make it out safely,” K. M. Abdul Hasan, president of the Indian Medical Association in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, told CNN, adding that more than 40,000 doctors went on strike on November 14 to demand safety in the workplace for health care workers.

Earlier this summer, thousands of doctors across the country took industrial action – and also spent weeks protesting – after a trainee medic was raped and murdered in the eastern city of Kolkata in July.

Their main demand then was a federal law, known as the Central Protection Act (CPA), to protect doctors and medical staff at their workplace. The stabbing in Tamil Nadu has once again emphasized the need for such a law, and stricter security measures to protect health care workers, doctors say.

Violence is ‘expected’

In recent weeks, CNN has spoken to nearly a dozen doctors who all reported a hostile work environment and lack of security. Several doctors work in the capital New Delhi, but they say things are much worse at remote health care centers.

A survey published in August in the wake