Incidents of violence against doctors in India have increased over the last few years. Most of the doctors in the country are concerned about their safety at work. There was a time when doctors in our country were bestowed upon a divine status. There was a huge amount of trust and respect between the doctors and the patients and their relatives. However, time has changed now and this change can be attributed to multiple factors. It may be due to growing intolerance amongst people, increasing pace of life, and reducing respect for each other. Whatever it may be, it is really unfortunate. Earlier in the majority of the cases, such violence took the form of either verbal abuse or aggressive gesture. But these days, it has risen to such an extent that it had fatal outcomes at times.
One of the important dimensions of violence to the doctors in government and corporate hospitals is the feeling of wrong doing by the doctors for financial gain or for avoiding his/her duties. The patients’ relatives do not understand that not all the treatment can have successful outcomes. Electronic and print media also do not have real understanding of the challenges faced by the doctors. Media immediately jumps to conclusions and publishes sensational stories of organ theft, medical negligence and malpractice. Indian media has played a major role in demonizing doctors with the objective of selling news. Journalism has become increasingly competitive and hence presenting sensational news adds value and TRP to the news channel as well. Unfortunately such things have a very negative impact on the society as a whole.
As per the information provided by the Indian Medical Association that has been published in “The Lancet”, nearly 75% of the doctors in India have faced some form of violence either verbal or physical violence during their lifetime.
The current situation is alarming. There exists no law for the protection and safety of the medical community. While it is a non-bailable offense to assault a uniformed public servant like a bus driver or a policeman, there is no distinct penalty for hitting an onduty physician in a white coat.
Though the current scenario appears gloomy, it can be effectively handled by participation of the whole society which includes doctors, patients, media, police, and political and social personals. A doctor should understand some of those patientrelated characteristics which may be associated with violence. Heightened anxiety about the disease as well as finance needed for the disease seem to be an important component of initiation of violence and the doctor should train himself/herself for anxiety alleviation techniques. A good chair time for patient counselling and listening to the problems of the patient is essential to alleviate anxiety amongst the patients and their relatives. The doctors should explain the prognosis and ensure that the patient and the relatives have realistic expectations. Hospitals should have good counsellors and good Security personnel should be posted at the entrance and outside the doctors’ room. Weapons should be confiscated before allowing passage to anyone. All attendants must register at the front desk and be given a visitor badge to be worn at all times. No more than two attendants should be allowed with the patient. To ensure doctor safety, every hospital should create an emergency protocol and an evacuation plan in case of a major act of violence.
As there are certain responsibilities of doctors and other healthcare workers, similarly, responsibilities also have to be borne by patients and their relatives, political parties, hospital authorities, law maintaining machinery, media and government to see that health care improves and violence against doctors is strongly dealt with. Disputes between patients and hospitals or doctors are not to be sorted through violence, but in a civilized society, there are avenues of dispute redressal which should be used.
According to reports, the health workers and doctors in India have reached a breaking point in the wake of continuous physical attacks on them. The doctors are soft target and so there are repeated attacks on them. If this continues the country will see a huge exodus of trained doctors and this will have an impact on the health care facilities in the country.
Prof. (Dr.) Rajesh Sinha
Hony. Treasurer, AIOS
treasurer@aios.org