Security for Doctors working in Government Hospitals and People assaulting them should be punished like a Terrorists

Healthcare in India, whether it is in the country’s capital or in the boondocks, is a nightmare. In fact, sufferers would say nightmare is an understatement.  There is only one doctor per 1,700 citizens in India as per statistics of year 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) stipulates a minimum ratio of 1:1,000.  

There is one doctor for 11,528 people in government hospitals. Every government hospital serves around 61,000 people, with one bed catering to 1833 patients.  The total number of allopathic practitioners in the country is around 9.4 lakh in 2014, new government data showed.  

In the last three years, 3000 doctors went abroad for studies and did not return. The US employs 60% of the expatriate Indian doctors, with the UK being the second leading employer. Currently, for an MD degree, there are a little less than 5,000 seats across the country.

The Government should focus on the students who stay in India, by incentivize their work and give them benefits for choosing to stay behind instead of penalizing for their choice by providing sub-standard conditions and compelling them to give a bond for working one year in Rural India .

Now back to Mumbai……..Everyone talks about Mumbai being one of the safest cities in the world. At times, it takes cruel, inhuman incidents to break such myths. 

There have been recent incidents of resident doctors in municipal hospitals being assaulted by relatives, after a patients demise. These family members are so bent on violence that they pay no heed to either common sense or logic.

In September 2015, three resident doctors of KEM Hospital were brutally hit with iron rods, endangering their lives. One needs to understand that doctors are not God.

On 30th March, 2016 in the first incident of 2016 in Mumbai city, a young resident doctor at Sion Hospital was beaten by relatives of a patient who was admitted in a critical condition after months of neglect. Despite her fragile condition, the family refused to sign the consent form for treatment, arguing with the resident for almost 90 minutes. The patient unfortunately did not survive this delay.  The 1st year resident doctor ( who is my son Dr. Nihar Desai) was humiliated, abused and beaten up by an angry relative and not a single security guard came forward to help.  Was this his fault or even choice? Did he benefit from the demise of this patient? Did he really deserve this reaction after continuous 24*7 service to the patient?

It is always easy to blame but have we ever thought of what it takes to pursue the medical profession? Long years of dedicated studies, huge investments of time , efforts, sleepless nights for years under pathetic sub-human working conditions in government hospitals. All of this gets compounded when they are faced with hatred instead of gratitude.   In the event of death of patients, Resident Doctors or even specialists Doctors are not spared , which has created a terror in the minds of doctors.

All critical patients are referred to tertiary government hospitals thereby increasing load on already overburdened doctors there. In Mumbai Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital ( popularly known as Sion Hospital)  alone caters to 19 Lac OPD ( Out Patient Department) in a year. The Dean himself had said it is like “KUMBH MELA”.

In such a situation, the Bombay Municipal Corporation  (BMC) have to ensure better social environment by offering a basic minimum security to treating Doctors in BMC run all Hospitals. Shouldn't doctors be ensured safety and security? Shouldn’t there be CCTV coverage like in any other commercial outfit? Leaving them to the mercy of mob like families is akin to asking army jawans to safe guard our nation without adequate weapons.

This  problem is multi faceted and has far reaching consequences...e.g. brain drain, lack of commitment to noble practices, encouragement of anti social tendencies etc., but topping the charts would be the depleting faith in our own law and order system.  People who attack doctors should be called "Terrorist-like" because they are creating a terror in the minds of all doctor who are doing their best to save a life and serving society. These people are cause of brain drain, and disrupting peace and harmony of the nation. 

In the public interest and to facilitate better social environment, we urge the authorities, The Prime Minister of India , Health Minister of India , Bombay Municipal Corporation, Health Minister of Maharashtra State , Home Minister of Maharashtra State to take immediate steps…....like (i) have stringent law and punishments for such people (ii) , install CCTV cameras (iii)  post trained security guards (iv) have more barricades for security at all such public hospitals.

If this petition is heard and action is taken as desired by the concerned authorities then it will help the Doctors to serve without fear,  brain drain from country will be reduced and general well being of nation will be improved.

I urge everyone to vote if you believe in/ support this cause. A humble thanks for voting and if you didn’t feel strongly convinced to vote then thanks for reading at least. God Bless....

Yours sincerely

Amita Desai