About 30 to 40 per cent doctors across the country have faced violence once in their lifetimes. This was revealed by Jayesh Lele, the national secretary of Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) Hospital Board of India during a panel discussion on ‘Violence against doctors’ organised by Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad’s (IIM-A) Centre for Management of Health Services (CMHS) on Monday. He said that the violence against doctors in the country had become an epidemic because of which, doctors had started practising self-defence. He stated that around 55 to 60 per cent of resident doctors at government hospitals face violence as compared to the 30 to 40 per cent private doctors facing violence. The panellists discussed reasons for the increasing incidents of violence against the medical fraternity, the possible solutions for it and a lack of communication by doctors leading to a widening gap between the society and medical fraternity. “Along with communication gaps, the doctor per patient ratio, especially at public health care facilities leads to increasing discontent in the society. Added with a capitalistic mindset because of economic growth, there are increasing incidents of violence against doctors,” said Kuldeep Arya, joint CEO health, hospitals and medical colleges Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation Medical Education Trust (AMC-MET). He said that doctors in government hospitals are more accommodating and tolerant than their counterparts in private hospitals. Meanwhile, Manoj Sashidhar, Inspector General of Police, Panchmahal range, Godhra, said that the need to “diagnose the issue was more pressing that finding solutions to it”. “We can find ways to reduce doctors facing violence only when we have diagnosed the issue. For instance, in a hospital which spots are the most susceptible to violence against doctors — trauma centres or operation theatres. Only when we have diagnosed this will we be able to design hospitals in a way that reduces friction between doctors and patients,” said Sashidhar. Not ruling out cases of genuine medical negligence, he said that the fact that there is a lack of medical ethic practices can not be ignored. Persons from the legal sector also suggested introducing doctors to the laws applicable to the healthcare sector. A draft on the deliberations would be submitted to the IMA post the panel discussion, moderated by Dr Rajesh Chandwani, Chairperson CMHS.
