Doctors’ protest in West Bengal has grabbed the attention of the nation for the past few days. In solidarity with their colleagues in Bengal, many doctors across the country announced their protest. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) has announced a nation-wide strike for today. There are two aspects to look at the situation. The first being safety of doctors and second being to understand the resentment against some of the doctors.
Looking at the second aspect first, we understand that being a doctor is considered to be a noble profession. However, some doctors have earned a bad reputation for themselves and the profession as well. Private hospitals need to make a profit to sustain operations and hence give their doctors targets. In a sensitive profession as this, service to the society should be the major objective. The targets set by hospitals makes some of the doctors advise patients to undergo unnecessary procedures.
Due to this unethical behaviour, a resentment amongst patients is created and they distrust the doctors. As far as government hospitals are concerned, they are notorious for delay and lackadaisical attitude towards their duty.
The second aspect is that, people lack respect for the profession. Some doctors do dedicate themselves to their profession in an ethical manner. However, that dedication is not appreciated. Doctors are often threatened by the patient’s family. If the patient dies, the doctors are beaten. There is a genuine risk to the lives of doctors on duty.
Very often they have to deal with life and death situations. People’s passions are high and they are emotionally vulnerable. An outburst may even end up causing the doctor his life.
Under these circumstances, it is very important to find a balance between the two situations. The key is to ensure doctors safety and at the same time protect the patient from unethical doctors. There are already guidelines in place to ensure doctors follow the rules and regulations of the profession.
However, there is no effective mechanism to make sure that private hospitals do not take advantage of the patients. As much as one feels sympathy for the injured doctor in West Bengal, one needs to also focus on the root cause of the problem.
The incident could be avoided with added security measures but it will not diminish the root cause of the problem. Providing extra security to doctors on premises is a second step in solving the issue. The first step needs to be making sure there is no resentment against the doctors from their patients.
No matter what is the outcome of the protest by doctors in West Bengal, the Central government needs to take the initiative in ensuring patients trust their doctors. The second step has to be security measures for doctors to ensure that they are not targeted by families of patients or patients themselves.
As much as it is a time for government to act and provide security for doctors, it also important that doctors do a self-reflection to ensure that unethical behaviour does not exist.
