Chaperone rule for doctors in India: what the desk does. The female-attendant right, where it is written, and how a small OPD keeps it.

The chaperone rule for doctors in India, as written, is this: a female patient has the right to the presence of another female person during a physical examination by a male practitioner, and it is the duty of the establishment's management to make that presence available. It appears as right 5 in the NHRC Charter of Patients' Rights and as right (vii) in the charter approved by the National Council for Clinical Establishments in 2021. The Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002 contain no explicit chaperone clause. For a small clinic the rule is kept at the desk: a female staff member on every session a male doctor consults, offered before the examination, and noted on the visit.

Where is the chaperone rule actually written?

So the rule binds a clinic through the charter route, which depends on the state, and reaches a doctor through the general duties of delicacy and confidentiality in the 2002 regulations and through whatever the state medical council expects. A clinic should not wait to be told which applies. The arrangement costs a staff member's time and prevents the one allegation that ends a practice. The charter guide for clinics covers the rest of the charter and which parts are already law elsewhere.

What does the front desk do about it?

1. Staff every session a male doctor consults with at least one female staff member who can step into the consultation room: a nurse, an attendant or the receptionist herself if the desk can be left for a minute. Put it on the roster, not on luck.
2. Offer, do not wait to be asked. Before a female patient goes in for a visit that may involve an examination, the desk says "examination ke liye hamari staff saath rahengi" as a matter of course. The doctor can also say it in the room.
3. Record it. A line on the visit ("attendant: Sunita") takes two seconds and is the clinic's answer if a question is ever raised. If the patient declines, record that too, in the patient's words.
4. Respect a patient's own choice. A patient who wants her mother or friend present instead is accommodated. A patient who declines any chaperone is noted, and whether the examination goes ahead is the doctor's decision.
5. Keep the room arrangement sensible: a curtain or screen, a door that closes, and the chaperone inside it, not outside.
6. Say nothing about the examination afterwards. The chaperone is bound by the same confidentiality as the doctor; regulation 7.14 of the 2002 regulations applies to what was learnt in the clinic.

What if the clinic has no female staff that day?

Then the doctor decides, before the patient is in the room, whether the examination can wait for a session with a female staff member, whether an accompanying female relative will do for that patient, or whether the examination is limited to what needs no chaperone. The desk's part is to say so to the patient at registration, so the choice is the patient's as well. What the desk does not do is improvise a chaperone from the waiting room.

A clinic run by a female doctor is outside the charter's wording, which is about a male practitioner examining a female patient. Many such clinics still offer an attendant for any patient who wants one; it is a courtesy, not a requirement in the documents above.

What this post does not cover

Which examinations need a chaperone, how an examination is conducted, and anything clinical. Those are the doctor's domain and the council's. If a specific case is in doubt, the doctor should read the charter and the 2002 regulations and ask the state medical council. The desk's duties stop at staffing, offering, recording and keeping quiet. Consent for the examination itself is a separate matter; see informed consent in an OPD.

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