Monday night’s attacks on three public hospitals are the first such cases after the enactment of the ordinance to protect doctors and hospitals from violence.

The police did not register first information reports in the attacks on GT Hospital and Rajawadi Hospital. In the attack at Maa Hospital in Chembur, provisions of the new ordinance -- Maharashtra Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage of Property) Act, 2008 -- have not yet been applied. The Chembur police have registered a case of rioting. No arrests have been made.

According to the ordinance, passed in February, such attacks against doctors and hospitals are non-bailable offences.

Dr Lalit Kapoor, head of the Association of Medical Consultants, said this could be due to insufficient awareness. “Police Commissioner D Sivanandhan had sent a circular to all police stations in June asking them to book persons under this ordinance but it seems not everyone is aware of it,” he said.

Dr Kapoor pointed out that the law had been successfully used in two recent cases of assault at private nursing homes in Malad and Kalyan. “We intervened in both cases and got the police to book them under the new law,” he said. The cases are in court.