Those who have the responsibility of saving people’s lives often face violence, threats and insecurity in hospitals. Many researches have also revealed that a large number of doctors and health workers are victims of some form of violence or harassment at their workplace. The incident of rape and murder of a female doctor in RG Kar Medical College, Kolkata has raised more questions on the safety of doctors. On National Doctor’s Day, we will try to know how safe doctors and health workers are in Indian hospitals. Also, why are the violent incidents against them not stopping?
8 out of every 10 doctors faced violence
According to a survey published in the National Medical Journal of India, 80% of doctors in the country said that they have seen or suffered violence at the workplace. Most of these cases are of abuse, threats and physical attacks. This clearly means that such incidents have occurred with 8 out of every 10 doctors. According to the report, verbal violence against these doctors was approximately 92.3% and physical attacks were 45.6%. At the same time, 1.4 percent incidents of sexual violence occurred.
About 53.4% of the doctors said that incidents of violence against them happened in the emergency department and those who did so were mainly the relatives of the patient or the people accompanying them. Nearly half experienced workplace violence more than once. 8.2% people faced such incidents 7-10 times and 11.6% people faced such incidents more than 10 times. To reach this conclusion, the sample size of the survey was kept at 439.
Headlines
- According to the report, 8 out of every 10 doctors faced violent incidents at the workplace.
- Such incidents are highest in emergency wards, ICU, trauma centres, night duty and government hospitals.
- Health system, social behavior, administrative deficiency, increasing cost of treatment are the reasons behind these incidents.
This change is coming in doctors due to violence
According to the survey, considering the possible violence at the workplace, 66 percent of the doctors say that this is the reason why in 65.1% of the cases, treating seriously ill patients at primary centers is avoided. In 61.6 percent of the situations, ‘defensive’ method is adopted in medical practice. In the survey, 52 percent doctors also said that their job satisfaction and interest in taking care of patients is very low. At the same time, 41.4% say that their job satisfaction and interest in patient care has decreased to some extent.
Most violence against doctors and health workers has been seen in emergency wards, ICU, trauma centres, night duty, government medical colleges and district hospitals. During this period they were verbally abused and abused.
There are incidents of beatings and physical attacks, threats and intimidation, vandalism in hospitals, sexual harassment of women doctors and nurses and security threats.
Why are doctors attacked?
The question is why doctors are continuously attacked. There is not just one reason behind this. There can be many reasons like health system, social behavior, administrative deficiency, increasing cost of treatment, increase in crowd, non-availability of resources and lack of communication between doctors and the patient’s family.
Anger over the death or critical condition of the patient– When a patient dies or his condition worsens, many times the family members, in an emotional and angry state, hold the doctors or hospital staff responsible for it. In such situations, many times the anger of the family members came out in the form of violent behavior towards doctors and health workers.
Expectations of the patient’s family from the doctor- When family members reach the hospital with the patient, they feel that the doctor can save every patient. But many times the circumstances are not in the hands of the doctors and the patient loses his life. If such results do not come as expected, resentment against the doctors increases, which takes the form of violence.
Heavy crowd and lack of resources in government hospitals-The treatment of patients is affected due to non-availability of beds in hospitals, long wait, shortage of medicines and equipment, insufficient number of doctors and nurses. Even in this situation, many times the patient’s family members indulge in violence against the doctors and staff.
Lack of communication between the doctor and the patient’s family- Many times, even doctors do not provide adequate information to family members about the patient’s condition, risks and limitations of treatment. In such a situation, due to lack of communication, misunderstandings arise, which can turn into disputes and violence.
Stress created due to heavy treatment expenses-The huge bills charged for treatment in private hospitals are creating tension in the families of the patients. Many times, the bill from the hospital is many times more than the expected amount of treatment. This situation also sometimes results in anger against doctors.
Due to rumor and fear of law decreasing-In many cases, misinformation, rumors or misleading news spread on social media can incite the crowd, which can lead to incidents of violence in hospitals. Many of its doctor organizations believe that due to lack of prompt and strict action in attacks on doctors, it becomes difficult to stop such crimes.
doctors’ hectic schedule Schedule—doctors And health workers often have to work long hours. Many times these doctors have to work shifts of up to 12-24 hours. Due to work pressure and stress, a situation of tension can also arise in communication and behavior. Many times this leads to arguments with the family members of their patients, which then takes the form of violence.
How will violence against doctors be reduced?
Attacks on doctors in hospitals are not a law and order issue alone. This is the result of lack of health infrastructure and resources in the country’s hospitals, lack of communication between doctors and patient’s family, social tension and hectic schedules of doctors. Experts believe that attacks on doctors can be reduced only by increasing the security arrangements in hospitals as well as strengthening the entire health system.
Leave a Reply