July 1st is observed as “Doctor’s Day” in India! It was started by the Government of India in 1991 as a mark of respect for one of the most famous physicians of the country, Dr. B C Roy.
However, instead of commemorating a day in their honour, the gents in white coat would have preferred a more humane treatment from the patients and their families for the pains they take to get them back on their feet.
Incidents of violence against doctors in India have increased in the last few years. Forever at the risk of being physically abused and intimidated by the relatives of the patients for their presumed failure to bring about the desired levels of improvement in their critical conditions, it is as if the doctors are always expected to save patients, no matter what the cost.
Speaking of costs! There is a feeling doing the rounds of late that when patients are rushed to multi-specialty hospitals for critical care, the mere fact that they have to avail paid services implies that nothing could go wrong with the patient. Apparently, paying money and losing the patient does not go together, at least that is the mindset generally fostered.
What a letdown it has been for the members of a noble profession!
Not long back, doctors enjoyed a divine statusplacing them next only to the Gods. However, the attitude of people towards the medical fraternity too has been seeing a sea change with mistrust replacing reverence. In an age where information gathering has become so simplified so as to have the quest for knowledge just a mouse-click away, the deteriorating scenario is signified by the know-all attitude of the modern generation which swears by the internet and convinced about the ‘Google guru’ proffering all answers to their queries.
Where once people used to trust doctors with their lives, today doubts persist and relatives and friends are quick to pounce on doctors demanding clarifications on the line of treatment adapted.
It is as if a life spent understanding diseases and combating them comes to a virtual naught compared to the instant know-how of the treatments offered on the net that is gaining more credibility among the public these days.
Some treatments are costly and are a drain on the family’s resources. It is when these treatment-modules hardly ameliorate the condition of the patient that tempers begin to fray. However, we need to realize that chances and risks are very much a part when doctors agree to take on hopeless cases. But, along with the doctor’s skills, a bit of divine intervention is also called for so as to have the patient showing signs of a speedy recovery.
Even so, the blame-game that has the doctors at the center of most of casualties in the operation theater or ICUs could well be avoided if the families of the deceased discerned facts more clearly. But considering the current trend, it does appear that the medical fraternity has no other option but to live with the scare of manhandling and such other issues threatening them every other day.
Suggestions that the government seriously thinks about spending substantially on healthcare seem to have fallen on deaf ears with hospitals and medical institutions showing a marked reluctance to upgrade obsolete facilities.
Worst still has been the government’s apathy in bringing about necessary amendments in the law to provide for stringent penal measures that could act as a deterrent to violence against medical practitioners.
The demeaning treatment meted out to the Head of the Pediatric Department at the Karnataka Institute of Medical Sciences Hospital by a Dharwad MLA just cannot be condoned and deserves castigation in the harshest of terms.
It is atrocious to believe a ‘compromise’ could be arrived at between a doctor and a minister over manhandling after the legislator did everything in his means to grab headlines by publicly humiliating the medico. It is preposterous to have the offenders ‘arriving at an understanding’ with the offended to evade punitive action by law.
But when legislators and people of social standing decide to take on members of the medical fraternity solely for garnering publicity, it speaks for the rot in a system which panders to the whimsicalities of individuals in power.
Seemingly, might is right in the order of their things! Moreover, as representatives of the people, when we have come to accept the honorable MLAs and MPs as ‘conduits’ between the government and the masses responsible for addressing various public concerns, it is indeed painful to have them reciprocating in such a cheap manner..
Respect for an individual comes through humanitarian attitude exhibited and this is an approach expected from all those who hold high and exalted positions in society. On the contrary ‘respect’ for political leaders hinges around public awe that comes from the power they flaunt - a show of ‘forced’ deference.
Doctors on the other hand, as we know, are the epitome of selfless service. As saviours of the sick, the stethoscope-wearing human beings exude an aura that convinces one of the goodness associated with them.
There are exceptions in every line of work. But should the bad deeds of a few eclipse the saintly acts of the majority?
