The government is up with some prudent steps in the health sector. The health details of the patients in the ICU will henceforth be informed to relatives at equal intervals. The move gets all the required praise since it was a long warranted one. The relatives or other groups mostly stationed out of the ICU rooms are generally in disquiet over not receiving any response from the doctors end. It will be once a day when the doctors reach the relatives to reveal the patient's health status. Often, the hospital witnesses brawl and fights. Many doctors were attacked and retribution also occurred from the doctors' side on other issues. Recently, Kerala saw a spike in attacks on doctors and health workers.

There are laws in place that call for the protection of health workers from violent attacks. However, the move is still in the nascent stage with no progress. Health Minister Veena George has called for reforms in the 2012 made law. A meeting was conducted and if the reports emerging are to be believed, the government will pace moves to make the law come to effect at the earliest.

According to the Health minister's recommendations, a new help desk will be formed near the ICU, exclusive for relatives to learn about the health status of patients. Hitherto, it was only through the grace of nurses or other health workers that the relatives sneaked some news about how the patient is faring. Errors were also aplenty since incidents occurred in Kerala where nurses gave the health status of the wrong person to relatives. All such quibbles will come to an end with the opening of a separate help desk to meet this purpose.

It comes under the right of relatives and concerned ones to know about the health status of patients in bed. However, the relatives are commonly seen as irate and will repeatedly ask for queries not knowing the herculean work carried out by the health workers. This results in fights and exchanges inside the hospital premises.

It was only last month that the IMA conducted a protest in Kerala for the recurring attacks on doctors in the state. The work time has reached the summit and has made the doctors go desultory over a certain period. The new law in place will meet its purpose only if the doctors' queries also get answered.