It was not until recently when a survey conducted by The Maulana Azad Medical College revealed that cases of Doctor violence and abuse are on the rise. Statistics showed that one in every two doctors is violently abused at public hospitals in India. The study comprised of a cumulative 169 doctors (junior and senior residents) working at Lok Nayak and G B Pant hospitals, both attached to MAMC.
Verbal abuse was reported to be the most common form of violence at 75%, closely followed by threats at 51% and lastly physical assault at 12%. The doctors reported of feelings of anger, frustration, and fear following physical violence from their patients. “It is humiliating and frustrating either to be beaten up or abused for no fault,” remarked Dr. Vinrod, the general secretary of MAMC’s resident Doctor’s Association. He further comments that violence continues to grow despite assurances from the government.
It is believed that patients turn violent when they miss ICU beds due to overcrowding, a situation said to be out of public doctors’ reach. “Ours is a 1,200 bedded hospital, but there are only 8 ICU beds. Relatives get aggressive if we aren’t able to provide a bed with ventilator support,” remarked Dr. Harsh Verma, President of the Guru Tegh Bahadur Hospital’s RDA.
So dire is the situation that government hospitals have opted to hire bouncers to manage crowds in their emergencies. “Doctors on emergency duty had to prioritize cases, but the attendants often felt that their patient was being neglected. Many times, poor patients are being referred from one hospital to another due to lack of equipment, and this often leads to tension,” remarked Dr. Balvinder Singh, a member of the governing Council of Federation of Resident Doctors’ Association of Delhi.
Not only is violence towards doctors prominent in public hospitals, but in private hospitals as well. The major reason for violence in private settings is cited as cost escalation or unnecessary pending investigations withholding a deceased’s body.
A report published in the National Medical Journal of India postulates that abused doctors felt fatigued and had low levels of self-esteem.
Recent incidents of doctor-patient clashes have been reported in many parts of the country, but MAMC also revealed that violence cases against doctors have over time been under-reported. This is because doctors want to avoid legal hassles.
Not long ago, trainee doctors and post-graduate medical students took to the streets to demand action against persons who had assaulted doctors on duty. The scuffle ensued because a nurse and a doctor had blocked relatives of a patient from all seeing him at the same time. The relatives reacted in anger and started abusing and manhandling the doctors. Police were on hand to calm the scene and booked a case for the attackers for their offenses, including rioting, wrongful restraint and deterring a public servant from his duty. The doctors since demanded a two tier security system that would ensure that such incidents wouldn’t happen.
