Tag: media

Tragedy at Varanasi: comparison of multiple healthy deaths due to civic negligence vs one in hospital due to disease


                There is a stark  difference in  the kind of  media  projection, burden of negligence and accountability of preventable multiple healthy deaths by civic negligence   as compared to one hospital death by disease. In fact the burden of   negligence here in healthy deaths is massive and  these deaths are unpardonable. But reality is opposite.  Strangely   “alleged and perceived negligence” ( with no proof and no investigation )  in death of someone already having disease  and death in hospital  during treatment attracts more scrutiny and   stringent  punishment   a naked “negligence  in deaths of healthy people” in such cases  of civic negligence.  

In an unfortunate incident at Varanasi , at least 19 people were crushed to death and more than a dozen injured after two concrete beams fell off 40 foot-high pillars at an under construction flyover in Varanasi on Tuesday evening. Massive civic negligence  again leading to  entirely preventable loss of lives. These incidents bring fore to my mind the misplaced priorities of media and society  which too have  contributed to  some extent to these unabated ongoing preventable   deaths  of  hundreds of  healthy people.

Multiple  Deaths  in healthy people by civic negligence :

Large numbers of death and morbidity happen amongst absolutely healthy population due to preventable causes like open manholes, drains, live electric wires, water contamination, dengue, malaria, recurring floods  etc. These deaths  of people are in thousands, and are almost entirely of healthy people, who otherwise were not at risk of death. In fact the burden of   negligence here is massive and  these deaths are unpardonable.  It’s time media took it upon itself to bring to fore these issues before accidents, so that many innocent lives. Timely action can prevent these deaths. 

       Single  Death in Hospital due to disease:

The  media has always, instead, focused on the stray  and occasional incidents of perceived alleged negligence  in hospital deaths which could have occurred due to critical medical condition of patient. However an impression is created as if the doctors have killed a healthy person. It is assumed without any investigation that it was doctor’s fault.  Media has been responsible for  creating a misunderstanding about the whole process of treatment. They have ignored other important things like civic negligence and has instead trained their entire energy in  blaming the doctors  in an effort  to get something sensational out of nothing.

The whole blame  is cleverly put  on doctors. Even after doing everything possible, doctor may be running for his life, trying to save himself from goons. He may be an object for revenge. He may be running after lawyers, if a medical lawsuit is filed. Even if court give the judgement after decades in favour of doctor, harassment of the doctor is permanent and irreversible damage is  done  to doctor. He is already punished.

Here it will be seen later, whether some one can be punished or not.

Point to ponder-Misplaced priorities:

Who is to be  blamed for  the deaths of healthy people which occur because of civic negligence? Here relatives may be helpless and  the vital questions  may go unanswered or taken as a routine.  There are no punching bags like doctor  for revenge. Any stray incident of death of an already ill patient is blown out of proportion by media forgetting the fact that thousands of patients are saved everyday by  doctors. But media instead chose to defame medical profession by igniting the emotions of people by sensationalising death of diseased and ill,  who probably were already at risk of death and did not give due importance to highlighting prevention of healthy  and absolutely 100% preventable deaths.

Right issues raised at right time will save thousands of healthy preventable deaths. Multiple  healthy deaths should carry more burden of negligence than  one death due to disease.

      

 

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Pharma- Malaise may get treatment: unique IDs of drugs soon to check fakes


Usually every problem related to health is called medical malaise, but that is a misnomer.  In fact health care comprises tens of different industries. Collective malaise of all these is conveniently projected as medical malaise, related to doctors. Rest remain invisible, earn money and  doctors are blamed. As doctor is a common universal link that is visible with patient. By an average application of wisdom, it is easy to blame doctors for everything,    that goes wrong with patient.

One such problem is presence of fake medicines.  If patient gets fake or low quality medicines and does not get well or gets side effects, doctor will face harassment. Whereas people involved and industry will be sitting pretty and  make money.

Therefore any such step  to correct Pharma –malaise should be a welcome step for  doctors. Although it will be a complex issue, because of complexity involved in implementation and execution of policies. But recognition and beginning to think of the problem is also an important step.

May be a time to treat Pharma- malaise.

India’s highest advisory body on drugs will discuss a mechanism to end the menace of counterfeit medicines at a meeting on 16 May.

According to the proposal to be discussed at the Drug Technical Advisory Board meeting, consumers will be able to check whether the medicines that they have purchased are genuine by texting a unique code to be printed on the medicine’s package to a number, said two people aware of the matter, both of whom requested anonymity.

The government plans to initially build a data bank of 300 medicine brands and their consumption pattern in various parts of the country.

Drug companies will then be asked to print a unique 14-digit alphanumeric code on the package of the drug. Consumers buying the medicine can then inquire via a text message whether the code—and therefore the medicine—is genuine or not.

Pharma firms may be asked to print a unique 14-digit code on drugs’ packaging; consumers can send a text message to find out if the code is genuine or not

A government survey conducted between 2014 and 2016 had found 3.16% of drug samples it tested to be sub-standard, while 0.02% were spurious

A WHO report in 2017 revealed approximately 10.5% of medicines in low- and middle-income countries including India are sub-standard or fake

 

The unique identification code will help consumers avoid buying fake products. The idea is that within seconds, the person should receive a reply indicating whether the drug is legitimate.

 

Fake medicines lead to drug resistance in humans and cause a significant number of deaths, according to public health experts. A government survey

conducted between 2014 and 2016 to check the proportion of substandard drugs in India had found 3.16% of the samples it tested to be substandard, while 0.02% were spurious.

Significantly, even samples from big drug makers were found to be not of standard quality during the survey carried out through the National Institute of Biologicals, according to regulator Central Drugs Standard Control Organization.

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Clean chit to Max doctors in baby death : media reverse news, but mistrust generated in medical profession irreversible


After five months of the incidence, media has now decided to place the correct picture before public. A fact which was very clear to medical fraternity  at the onset, was presented by section of media in a twisted form.  Venomous propaganda and unilateral versions  by media were  projected as doctor’s error, maligning the profession fully. Now the media has to give the correct picture to public after DMC inquiry. But due to wrong information propagated at that time, an environment of mistrust has been generated. Media jumped to wrong  and premature conclusions,   which  created a sense of uncertainties in the minds of patients.  Untrue assertions  about medical profession and maligning of doctors  were propagated just to  create a sensation.  Projection of true picture  by media is   of  great importance and need of hour. If media propagates a stray incidence  and makes sensational news out of nothing, it will further erode trust of public in medical profession. Media people will earn fame and money at the cost of people lives. Mistrust thus generated is definitely detrimental to medical profession as a whole, but in the long run it  will cause  irreversible harm to society.

The Delhi Medical Council (DMC) has given a clean chit to the doctors at Max Shalimar Bagh in a case where a new born was allegedly wrongly declared dead. His parents discovered that the baby was still alive when they were going to cremate him.
The state medical council, in its report to Delhi Police’s crime branch which is probing the case, has stated that the parents of the new born, delivered at 23 weeks of pregnancy, had signed the Do Not Resuscitate (DNR) document.

“International medical literature clearly suggests that fetus less than 24 weeks, if born, is not viable and not likely to survive. The Delhi Registration of Birth and Death Rules, 1999, prescribe that 28 weeks is period of gestation for it to be viable,” said Dr Girish Tyagi, registrar of DMC.  He added that there were procedural lapses and inadequate documentation, which was probably due to absence of standard operating guidelines when managing such cases. “We have written to the Centre and the state to develop protocol for dealing with them in the future,” Tyagi said.

Media should be  show responsibility and refrain from making early conclusions specially in cases involving medical complexities. Defaming the medical profession just on unilateral version of the story may help  media make some money but can be highly detrimental for the society in future.   Damage to doctor patient relationship and trust is irreversible. Can now media undo the damage done to medical profession and mistrust generated between patient and doctor?

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14 of world’s 15 most polluted cities in India : is crime and pollution related?


The WHO report said 14 of world’s 15 most polluted cities were in India which includes Delhi, Kanpur and Varanasi.  This will need  soul searching  and introspection by every one including policy makers.

Air pollution is related to lung diseases like asthma, emphysema or COPD.  It can have effects on pregnant women, Heart patients and outdoor workers etc.  but another aspect of relationship  of pollution with crime is also coming up, which concerns the psychological aspect.

There is a study  in London which relates pollution and crime rate. Although it appears strange but it gives some thing to ponder. If proved correct it may be dangerous environment to the people living in polluted cities.

A new report by researchers at the London School of Economics (LSE) suggests that crime in the capital is being driven by air pollution.

Their results show more polluted areas will see spikes in crime, particularly for less serious offences.

While the study relies on observational data and therefore cannot make definitive conclusions, it adds to a small but growing body of evidence linking pollution and crime.

Previous experiments have shown that increased levels of particulate matter in the air lead to increased blood levels of stress hormones such as cortisol.

The authors therefore suggest that behavioural changes resulting from increased stress hormone levels may in turn lead to an increased likelihood a person will commit a crime.

This means is that pollution can have a negative effect on people’s ways of thinking, including decision making and the way they think about future punishment.

Higher levels of pollution mean higher levels of cortisol. Higher levels of cortisol affect the way that punishment is being perceived by criminals.

Though the paper has yet to be peer reviewed and published in an academic journal, it has undergone internal peer review at LSE’s Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment.

The research is not the first to explore links between air pollution levels and crime.

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Death of radio executive TANIA: result of misplaced priorities of media in civic negligence: hundreds healthy deaths vs one in hospital due to disease


        Just Compare the media  projection, burden of negligence and accountability of  hundreds of healthy deaths by civic negligence   with one hospital death by disease. In fact the burden of   negligence here in healthy deaths is massive and  these deaths are unpardonable. But reality is opposite. It is just to compare how  a naked “negligence  in deaths of healthy people” in such cases   to the  “alleged and perceived negligence ( with no proof and no investigation )  in death of someone already having disease  and death in hospital”  during treatment  is projected by our society and  media. 

An unfortunate incident   of untimely death of a young and talented person happened yesterday due to civic negligence.  The family lost their dear daughter due to an incident which was totally preventable . Another recent incident was of unlicensed school vans being driven rashly, again leading to  entirely preventable loss of lives. These incidents bring fore to my mind the misplaced priorities of media and society  which too have  contributed to  some extent to these unabated ongoing preventable   deaths  of  hundreds of  healthy people.

An open drain and a poorly lit road claimed the life of a young executive in Noida in the early hours of Wednesday. The victim, Tania Khanna was driving  car that plunged into the eight-foot-wide drain. Such a huge drain has been left uncovered and there is no proper mechanism of streets lights in the area. There is also no CCTV camera installed there. Noida Authority officials did not respond to requests for a comment.

An open drain next to a road with no barrier or signage and not even street lighting is a recipe for disaster. No civilized part of the world would allow such a situation to exist. That this particular area is still in the process of being developed is beside the point. Whether an area is fully developed or is being developed, there should either be no open drain or if there is one that has not yet been covered, it must be clearly separated from the road and pavements by barriers. There should also be clear signs warning people of the potential danger and lighting to ensure they can see it. That this is not done amounts to negligence by the civic authorities, for which individual accountability must be fixed and action taken.

Multiple  Deaths  in healthy people by civic negligence :

Large numbers of death and morbidity happen amongst absolutely healthy population due to preventable causes like open manholes, drains, live electric wires, water contamination, dengue, malaria, recurring floods  etc. Which somehow are never made as headlines or breaking news by media due to lack of sensational substance. These deaths  of people are in thousands, and are almost entirely of healthy people, who otherwise were not at risk of death. In fact the burden of   negligence here is massive and  these deaths are unpardonable.  It’s time media took it upon itself to bring to fore these issues so that many innocent lives of  many more healthy people like Tania can be saved.

 

       Single  Death in Hospital due to disease:

The  media has always, instead, focused on the stray  and occasional incidents of perceived alleged negligence  in hospital deaths which could have occurred due to critical medical condition of patient. However an impression is created as if the doctors have killed a healthy person. It is assumed without any investigation that it was doctor’s fault.  Media has been responsible for  creating a misunderstanding about the whole process of treatment . The patient coming to hospital already is diseased and some are critical and have a finite percent chance of death. The doctor tries his best to treat him but  may not always succeed. Making an issue out of a hospital death of a sick patient despite the doctors’ best efforts may get some high viewership to the paper but is it right?  No. They have ignored other important things like civic negligence and has instead trained their entire energy in  blaming the doctors  in an effort  to get something sensational out of nothing.

The whole blame  is cleverly put  on doctors. Even after doing everything possible, doctor may be running for his life, trying to save himself from goons. He may be an object for revenge. He may be running after lawyers, if a medical lawsuit is filed. He may have to stand like a culprit in front of relatives of deceased, who can abuse or threaten him in the language they choose, in garb of emotional outburst. Doctors are advised in such situations to be calm and suffer silently or just apologize, as it is thought to be correct in front of relatives stuck with grief. Even if court give the judgement after decades in favor of doctor, harassment of the doctor is permanent and irreversible damage is  done  to doctor. He is already punished.

Here it will be seen later, whether some one can be punished or not.

Point to ponder-Misplaced priorities:

Who is to be  blamed for  the deaths of healthy people which occur because of civic negligence? Here relatives may be helpless and  the vital questions  may go unanswered or taken as a routine.  There are no punching bags like doctor  for revenge. Any stray incident of death of an already ill patient is blown out of proportion by media forgetting the fact that thousands of patients are saved everyday by  doctors. But media instead chose to defame medical profession by igniting the emotions of people by sensationalising death of diseased and ill,  who probably were already at risk of death and did not give due importance to highlighting prevention of healthy  and absolutely 100% preventable deaths.

      Is  it due to a misplaced priorities of  the media or in an effort to create sensational news? Had media made an appropriate noise about right  issues and scratched the right pole for  preventing  death of healthy people , Tania might have been alive today and thousands more.

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Expensive Medical college education (NEET) & poor health system: systematic root rot


Imagine, an opportunity is available to a patient, to decide the doctor as based on his route or marks for entry into medical college. Whether patient will like to get treated by a doctor, who   secured 20% marks, 30 % marks or 60% marks or 80% marks for medical college.  Even   an illiterate person can answer that well. But strangely for selection of doctors, rules were framed so as to dilute the merit to the minimum possible. So that a candidate who scores 20 -25 % marks also becomes eligible to become a doctor. What is the need to dilute and shortlist around half a million for few thousand seats. Answer to that is simple.  To select and find only those students from millions, who can pay millions to become doctors.  

      Although the whole effort and huge expenditure to become doctors in this way may be really worthless in today’s scenario, considering the difficult times and vulnerability of medical profession. By allowing a intentional dilution of quality  can be advantageous only to  few and detrimental to others.

  • Beneficiaries are rich candidates, medical colleges who collecting fee and may be public who will get numbers of doctors. Surplus of doctors is thought to be an advantage to society. But here quality is least of the consideration.
  • Disadvantage to students, who are meritorious but can’t pay, and possibly society in long run, who is deprived of good quality doctors.

 

Dilution of Merit :

  • Before NEET was made mandatory in 2016, the cut-offs for admission were 50% marks for the general category, and 40% for the reserved categories. From the 2016 admission year, these were changed to 50th and 40th percentile, respectively, opening the doors to candidates with just 18-20% marks in the NEET aggregate. Thereby candidates securing 5% marks (physics) and 20% in  biology are also eligible to be doctors (times of India).
  • The student with the highest NEET marks among those admitted into the private university had lower marks than the last student admitted to the open category in each of the government colleges.
  • In the private university, the fees for the MBBS course are Rs 64 lakh compared to just Rs 4 lakh in the government colleges.
  • when NEET was introduced, many private colleges increased their tuition fees many fold.  This  ensured that meritorious students without money would never get admission. The tuition fee is fixed arbitrarily to cater to only rich or super rich students. (times of India)         System of medical business and  medical education is created based on willful dilution of merit.   Quite a few successful candidates may eventually feel that the money spent and the hard work may not be worth it especially those candidates who may have invested in heavy fees or bought a seat in medical colleges with hefty amount. Some of them, who invested millions for becoming doctors, will be even probably unable to recover their investments. The students with strong financial backgrounds may be more benefited as they can become health  investors or health managers. But for others, it could be a dream turning into a nightmare.

    If the society continues to accept such below par practices, it has to introspect, whether it actually deserves to get good doctors. Paying the irrational fee of medical colleges may be unwise idea for the candidates, who are not from strong financial backgrounds. But at the same time unfortunately, it may be a compulsion and entrapment for students, who have entered the profession and there is no way  forward.  So children have to be careful while choosing medical careers from the beginning.

    A famous axiom “as you sow so shall you reap” has an application to health system in this scenario, so people should not rue scarcity of good doctors.  

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Real story of a female doctor assault: serving an uncivilized society


Few words here can’t describe the plight of a female doctor, who was brutally assaulted by a mob at her residence, for no fault of hers. This incidence happened about a year back, about 200 KM away from Delhi.

It was an evening time and a boy had an accident with a bus. He was brought to a community health centre.  Female medical officer who had her residence inside the hospital in staff quarters examined the patient and found that he was already dead. She explained the situation to the family members with due sensitivity, did all the paper work and returned to her residence in about an hour. Mob kept on gathering and after half an hour, they barged into the house of the lady medical officer.

They dragged her by hair in front of her teenage daughter. Mob started assaulting her with fists and legs along with a rod. Her daughter cried and shouted for help.   Mob even tried to set her on fire. This brutal and devilish assault continued till neighbours from other staff quarters saved her with great difficulty and took her away. Mob continued rampage in her house and hospital, trying to break everything.

She sustained severe head injuries and was admitted in a hospital for about ten days. What was her fault and why mob did this to her? Is being a doctor and working in remote area her fault? Everybody knew that the reason for death of the boy was what happened outside the hospital.  There was an errant bus driver, who was responsible.  Then why was she made a punching bag for venting out emotions of the bereaved relatives. Nothing and really nothing can justify this barbaric act. Emotions should not be allowed to take such a demonic form.

This is simply jungle raj, goonism and  expression of a most  uncivilized kind of society, which simply cannot be excused by any sort of reasoning. The incident was protested by the professional bodies as is the routine and after few day things normalized for everybody else except that terrorised family. The said lady medical officer took posting elsewhere and as is usual, nothing much happened to the accused.

Woman doctor assault : Era worse than MAHABHARATA for female doctors

There was again same silence and little concern shown by our media, courts, prominent people, celebrities, human right commission, woman right activists and women commission. This again brings forth the hypocrisy of these people and organizations, who otherwise cry about woman rights and empowerment.  Whenever a female is assaulted, there is an outrage but the same support is not extended to a female if she is a doctor. Such bestiality should create havoc in minds of civilized people but this apathy to such incidents clearly indicates otherwise. Have we become so uncivilized that an incident such as this just remains as a small news item in a local paper? Can’t we see that such incidents are harbinger of many more in future? It is important to realize that this is the time to unify and condemn such episodes vehemently and prominently so that the miscreants realize that they cannot get away with it.

Doctors in remote area, where there are minimal medical facilities, doctors are  at more risk  than ever. In larger institutions and cities, doctors still gather and have some support. But at remote places,  they are at mercy of local goons with no protection.

Beti bachao Beti padhao vs Violence against female doctors

Violence against female doctors: Silence of human and  woman right commissions

Advantages-Disadvantage of being a doctor

25 factors- why health care is expensive

     REEL Heroes Vs Real Heroes

     21 occupational risks to doctors and nurses

     Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

   Medical-Consumer protection Act- Pros and Cons

Expensive Medical College  seat- Is it worth it?

NEET- Not so Neat- percentile system 

The  Myth  of  cost of  spending  on  medical  education needs to be made  transparent.

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Apollo Hospital fined 5 lakh: “Doc, Talk less, write more”.Doctor save yourself by “documenting the communication”


Doctors are trained to treat patients and  that is they keep on  doing. But in today’s era that is not enough. They are expected to examine, investigate, diagnosis , treat correctly   and communicate to the family or patient. Everything should be speedy and  financially suitable to the patient’s expectations. Even if that is done, the things do not end here. Doctor need to document, what has been  communicated to the family.  It is hard to believe that  doctor at a hospital like Apollo,  who really did well to diagnose a disease like SLE and still did not communicate. Yes, news item mentions that in file that  there was no evidence of communication. Doctors still behave like doctors and do not treat patient as consumer. Usually , doctor trust their patients  and there is lot of verbal communication takes place. Verbally they sympathize, communicate  and  tell many things which are not documented as a routine.

The Delhi State Consumer Commission, in its judgment, made it essential for a hospital to disclose to the patients or their attendants, the line of treatment and the potential risks involved in it.
The judgment came in connection with the death of a 23-year-old student, who died during a treatment at  Indraprastha Apollo Hospital in 2004.

Many times patients are sincere enough to admit to  verbal  communication. But sometimes when  during ongoing  medico legal lawsuits, a feeling  of revenge prevails  or as guided by lawyers, patient  may not admit  to the verbal communication.  Specially if verbal communication is not documented in file.

How to  save yourself  by  “documenting  the communication”

  • examine, investigate, diagnosis , treat correctly and communicate
  • Make a note of plan of treatment and prognosis, and communicate to patient or attendants.
  • Sign yourself and ask the patient or nearest relative to sign.
  • It is not uncommon that relative will refuse to sign. In that case just write a note and mention that attendant refuses to sign.
  • It is also a common issue that after listening to everything, relative will say that he does not understand or will ask his uncle or aunt. These are difficult moments and commonly happen. Just make a note of everything. Besides it wastes crucial time.
  • Can use camera for communication in difficult cases.
  • Never rely on verbal communication. It has little value.  Commonly people refuse to admit verbal communication, and will say that they were not told anything.

As time for everything is limited in life, be it treatment, communication, consent or documentation. So message is clear for doctors. “Talk less and write more”. You will be judged by documents after many years. Therefore,  do save the patient, but save yourself also.

 

 

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NEET: Buying an expensive medical college seat & want to be doctor.  Worthless and unfair


At a time when students, parents and even doctors are uncertain whether opting for medical college along with the vulnerability and risk associated with   becoming a doctor is worth it or not, some are naive enough to pay millions as fee for medical education and for securing a seat  in medical college. The noble intentions of NEET were to minimize wastage of seats due to multiple admission procedures running concurrently and to do away with the variable criteria for selection used for admissions. But  there has been unregulated steep increase in fees of private medical colleges. So in the end, seats remain unfilled and may be a kind of auction, whosoever can pay millions, takes the seat.

        Going by selection of candidates as doctors, If given a choice, by whom  a patient will like to get treated? A candidate who scored 30 % marks or a person getting 60% or 80%  marks.   NEET eligibility getting lower and  a  candidate getting around 30 % of marks  may be able to secure a degree to treat patients.  What will be the deciding factor? The criteria as to why a person with 60%  marks will  not be given a seat and with 30% marks will be able to secure. It will depend upon, whether  a student  is able to pay the exorbitant fee or not. Present system and mechanism of admission permit and accept such huge  variation! That strange equation is acceptable in lieu of money paid!

It is ironical that the medical profession is regulated, but medical business or medical education is not.  Such business of producing doctors based on their paying capacity should be clearly trounced for the benefit of public. Foundations of healthcare should be on touchstone of merit, ethics and character and not based on business deals. Therefore meritorious students, especially from average backgrounds, who opt to become doctors feel cheated when they pay massive fee to buy a seat. It is an insult to the very virtue of merit which should have been the sole criteria for these admissions.

Quite a few successful candidates may eventually feel that the money spent and the hard work may not be worth it especially those candidates who may have invested in heavy fees or bought a seat in medical colleges with hefty amount. Some of them, who invested millions for becoming doctors, will be even probably unable to recover their investments. The students with strong financial backgrounds may be more benefited as they can become investors or health managers. But for others, it could be a dream turning into a nightmare.

   Buying a seat may be a compulsion for many as a  result of entrapment into a system. Once aspiring child  decides to be a doctor  and there may not be any other way forward.

A famous axiom “as you sow so shall you reap “  has an application to health system. As NEET has been implemented and there has been some effort to find out information about  admissions to medical colleges, at least tip of the  iceberg is getting visible.  More you know or read the news items about NEET, more one is convinced that industry  selling medical college seats has been quite powerful and practically, every technique to sell seats is prevalent to by pass the merit and deny seat to deserving candidates. These meritorious children, who are denied seats could have been   good doctors and   real custodian for the health of people.  But if for some reason, business prevails and government fails to prevent this cruel and corrupt selling of medical seats, an Einstein brain is not required to  guess the whole malaise prevalent in health system.  Foundation  of  medical system is suffused with sand rather than touch stone of merit.

Astronomical and unreasonable fee of medical colleges without proper facilities and medical education can be born only by investors and not good candidates.   It is the people and society, who will be the real sufferers in future. Therefore resentment to such system should come from the society.

If every one is happy by the arrangement, then one has to introspect, whether  society really deserve  kind of  doctors, they wish.

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Doctor’s assault at D Y Patil Medical College: incident hits doctor’s compassion and trust towards patients


unwillingness or failure of government  to prevent such attacks on doctors will have deep ramifications on future of medical profession. Silence of authorities, human right commission is really appalling.  Role of doctor associations, parent institutes have been spineless and not encouraging.  Role of media, celebrities, film stars in spreading the hatred against the medical profession and creating an environment of mistrust is unpardonable, where stray incidents were portrayed as normal routine just to earn money and fame. Ultimately doctors have been left to fend for themselves individually or with friend groups.

 Discussion always revolves around the trust of the patients on the doctor. But in reality, situation is getting opposite gradually. Empathy, sympathy, compassion and trust  of the doctor towards the patient, will definitely get a hit after these incidents. Everyday  the news of assaults on doctors, court cases against doctors, negative projection of the medical profession   in the media are viewed  by doctor’s community anxiously. Recent senseless attack  on doctor  at

D Y Patil Medical College Pune  is another example. 

A resident doctor was assaulted with a scalpel and a few paramedics were roughed up by relatives of 26 -year-old man after he suddenly died following a cardiac arrest at D Y Patil Medical College and Hospital in Pimpri late on Friday evening.
The resident doctor suffered a deep cut on his face and some blunt injuries in the assault.

 

        Merely taking some token  action and showing  protest will not solve the problem. It does not compensate for the  damage done to medical profession. Sympathy, compassion and trust of the doctors towards patients will definitely reduce. Who will be  the ultimate sufferer, does not need a Einstein brain to predict.

          Formal and informal discussions among medical professional at various forums  have taken a center stage about the changing scenario. It  gives a perception that patients are loosing faith in doctors. That perception is not incorrect. But what remains hidden is that every incidence of verbal, legal, and physical assault  brings some kind of feeling of insecurity in minds of all doctors, who deal with patients.

                    This insecurity or fear of the uncertainty tends to affect the thinking process of doctors and the way they practice medicine or deal with the patients. Many will like to be defensive in practice, or try not to treat very sick patients.  Why would someone try complex surgeries with risk involved? Few will limit themselves to follow protocols. Going extra mile with risk, which not everyone will like to take. Many will become health managers or  do something else than do active clinical work. Who should risk his life while doing routine work?

  Every incidence of verbal, legal, and physical assault is a trust breaker. It is not only erosion of patient’s trust on doctors but the vice versa is also true.  As  a rule of nature, as violence increases, compassion decreases.

    Patients might get their revenge for the  naturally occurring disease, but they will lose compassion and trust of doctors in the long run. If that is the way to impart justice in this era, doctors will have to find some way to save themselves.

 

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