New Delhi: As the cases of assault on doctors are on the rise, the health workers have raised their demand for immediate introduction of stringent norms to ensure safety of doctors across the country.
However, the doctors have also accused the government of not paying attention to the issues related to safety and security of doctors as the government is intentionally delaying the introduction of strict laws for the protection of health workers.
The issue of doctors’ safety has once again come at the centrestage following the murder of a young doctor by a drug addict in Kerala’s Kollam district on Wednesday.
Condemning the incident, Dr Yudhyavir Singh, a senior doctor at AIIMS-Delhi, said, “In India, healthcare is mainly dependent on doctors as there is a huge crisis of paramedical staff. Also, doctors are perceived as owners of the health-care system, which is not true in reality as they are just one of the team members.”
“It’s the doctors who face the ire of relatives of patients as they (doctors) are not provided with adequate paramedical staff for their assistance during the treatment procedures. The government should recruit more paramedical staff apart from introducing stringent norms to ensure safety of doctors at the workplace,” said Singh, who is Assistant Professor at Department of Anaesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, AIIMS-Delhi.
Blaming the government for not sitting idle in the matters of safety of doctors, FAIMA founder Dr Manish Jangra said, “It is very sad that the government is doing nothing for doctors. Also, the government is not leaving any scope of humiliating the medicos as more than five incidents of doctors’ assault have happened in the last week.”
No government has taken any concrete measure in this regard, which is enough to believe that India doesn't deserve the services of hardworking doctors, Jangra said, adding that doctors are not a vote bank for the governments, so there is a delay in stringent action.
“The doctors are only remembered at the time of medical emergencies like Covid-19. Even though many doctors have lost their lives during the pandemic, no compensation has yet been given to them,” he said.
As per reports, 75 percent of doctors in India have faced violence at some point of time in their life. Emergency and ICU are the most violent venues and visiting hours is the most violent time.