§ 24-a. Actions against persons rendering health care services at the request of the department; defense and indemnification. The provisions of § 17 of the public officers law shall apply to any person holding a license to practice a profession pursuant to article one hundred thirty-one, one hundred thirty-one-B, one hundred thirty-two, one hundred thirty-three, one hundred thirty-six, one hundred thirty-seven, one hundred thirty-nine, one hundred forty-one, one hundred forty-three, one hundred fifty-six or one hundred fifty-nine of the education law, who is rendering or has rendered professional services authorized under such license while acting at the request of the department or a facility of the department in providing health care and treatment or professional consultation to incarcerated individuals of state correctional facilities, or to the infant children of incarcerated individuals while such infants are cared for in facility nurseries pursuant to section six hundred eleven of this chapter, without regard to whether such health care and treatment or professional consultation is provided within or without a correctional facility.