Mohammad Shahid, the wrinkly oldster, had seen seventy-five summers and was hauled in by his relatives to be admitted into a Government Hospital, where he died. Apparently, he had lived a healthy life before that, but died in the hospital. This enraged the relatives of the dead, who went on mayhem, beating up a junior doctor so severely that he landed in the ICU with a fractured skull and could be battling for his life.
The infuriated colleagues promptly struck work demanding protection at the workplace, which was the fundamental responsibility of the government. The abrupt stoppage of work by the doctors has caused tremendous hardship to critical patients, many who have come from far-off places. The strike seems to have moved into day two.
Assault on doctors, by dissatisfied relatives of patients, has become a routine affair, not limited only to Kolkata or West Bengal, but throughout the country. In a similar case, the doctors from the government hospital from Mumbai demanded that they are allowed to keep a gun for their personal safety. Fortunately, the frayed tempers were calmed as the doctors returned to their workplaces and the country saved from being another America.
A survey by the Indian Medical Association reveals that 75% of the doctors working in hospitals have faced some sort of violence, while on their work and 70% of all such attacks were from the relatives of the patients.
As against a World Health Organization preferred one doctor per thousand people, a doctor in India has a heavy load of 11528 patients in government hospitals. Defective equipment, lack of medicines or infrastructure affect the doctors and their performance. Terminally ill patients from small nursing homes are always referred to government hospitals and the relatives, thanks to the easy availability of symptoms, causes and cure for any disease over the internet, come and challenge the doctors with their ill-acquired knowledge.
Although Karnataka and Maharashtra besides Delhi have laws enacted against the assault on doctors, seldom the rules have come to the rescue of the beaten-up doctors. The sad fact is those who assault are mostly well-connected with political leaders and rarely are booked.
The assault on doctors just cannot go on and must end. The damage incurred by turning away many patients from the locked doors explains the rot that has set in our system. I was a few months ago in a hospital in Kolkata, when the aggrieved relatives ransacked the reception, the patient records, computers as everyone huddled into a distant corner. There always are policemen in every hospital, who too were as terrorized as we were.
Counselling of the relatives, must begin in all the hospitals without any delay to avoid recurrence of such avoidable shameful incidents.
In one word: Shame!
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix