Stern action need of the hour to prevent violence against doctors

On October 16, this year, the country's two largest associations of healthcare providers - the Association of Healthcare Providers of India (AHPI) and the Indian Medical Association (IMA) - have jointly released a book delving on the ways to address the challenge of the increasing violence against the healthcare professionals, including doctors, in the country. The main objective of the book, titled "Perils in Practice: Prevention of Violence Against Healthcare Professionals", is to empower healthcare workers including doctors in facing the challenges of violence at healthcare institutions, providing guidance on their protection (including more effective communication), and examining the role of the health sector, the media, policy makers, law enforcement, regulators, and the community. It is obvious that the two associations of healthcare providers, AHPI for institutions and IMA for individual healthcare professionals, which jointly represent over 10,000 healthcare institutions and 3,75,000 individual healthcare professionals in the country, have come together to work in a publication to bring the spotlight on the issue after the distressing tragedy of Dr Archana Sharma's death by suicide after constant harassment eight months ago. Dr Sharma, a doctor who was booked for allegedly causing the death of a pregnant woman at a private facility in Rajasthan's Dausa district, committed suicide. Her death has come as a shock to the medical and non-medical fraternity of the country. The incident has once again triggered a debate about the need to create a peaceful ambience in the healthcare settings in the country.

Safety and security in healthcare institutions have been a matter of great concern in the country for quite some now. There have been reports of intermittent violence against the medical fraternity by the relatives of the patients in different parts of the country. Dr Sharma's case was not an isolated incident. In fact, there have been several such cases in the past also where the doctors and other medical professionals have been bearing the brunt of the violent relatives of the patients. When a patient dies, his family members and friends sometimes may get charged up as they come to the conclusion that the death has been occurred due to the negligence of the doctors and other healthcare professionals. But, whatever might be the reason for the death, the relatives and the friends of the patients have no right to give vent to their ire and emotions on doctors and other healthcare professionals. Such violence will only further vitiate the atmosphere in hospitals which are crumbling like a house of cards due to overcrowding of patients. Besides, the threat of violence will increase the stress levels of the doctors and the healthcare workers. It is a fact that behavioural aberrations of a consumerist society, inappropriate expectations and ignorance of limitations, all contribute to the civilisational degeneration called violence on doctors and hospitals.

It is a fact that the doctors in our country, especially in government hospitals, work under tremendous pressure as the doctor-patient ratio in the country has been steadily shooting up. The World Health Organisation (WHO) prescribes one doctor for 1,000 patients. But according to the National Health Profile in 2015, there is one doctor for a whopping 11,528 patients in government hospitals across the country. In such a scenario, in case of any mishappenings due to medical reasons, it is not justified to blame the treating doctors. Such acts cause insurmountable harm to the community and deflate the healthcare community which has proven their mettle during the Covid pandemic. There are no two opinions about the fact that the doctors across the country have been doing a yeoman's service to the nation in fighting the corona pandemic during the last more than two and half years now. No doubt they are working under tremendous mental and physical stress because of this prolonged pandemic. In such an unprecedented situation, providing a safe and secure working environment to the medical fraternity should be accorded top priority. The government intervention is the need of the hour. Dr Sharma's suicide has triggered a nationwide debate on the safety of doctors at their workplaces. This is not the first such incident. There have been many instances of abuse and violence against the doctors, over the years, across the country. Both the AHPI president Dr Alexander Thomas and IMA president Dr Sahajanand Prasad Singh have expressed their dismay at the state of healthcare workers in India today. Some stern action from the government is the need of the hour to prevent violence against healthcare professionals.

(The author is freelance journalist with varied experience in different fields)