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Doctors Strike - Kolkata Case

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June 17, 2019

Why in news?

  • Junior doctors in a medical college in Kolkata were recently attacked causing serious injuries, over the death of a patient.
  • This has led to widespread protests by doctors, across the country.

What is the growing mob culture in this regard?

  • The mob mentality has come to dominate India’s social consciousness, causing impact across various sections of the society.
  • Such violence is unique to the Indian Subcontinent.
  • Notably, there is increasing institutionalisation of violence through politics, caste, religion, economics and gender discrimination.
  • Institutionalised violence has, in turn, created a hierarchical social order.
  • Doctors are amongst those at the top of this hierarchy.
  • Doctors - In India, doctors in both public and private sectors are at the receiving end of violence.
  • Violence at the workplace, in general, can have negative and disastrous effects on employee satisfaction and work performance.
  • It is essential here to understand why reactions are different when it comes to doctors.

What is exclusive to the health sector?

  • Insensitivity - Violence as a means of effecting “justice” is common in Indian society.
  • But a large part of the intellectual class, including doctors, remains insensitive to this problem, till they are affected.
  • This is largely because doctors have an insulated existence, unaware of the institutionalised violence faced by common people.
  • Dalits, minorities, women and other underprivileged sections of Indian society suffer violence on a regular basis.
  • But doctors being unaware of this is the most important reason for violence coming back to haunt them.
  • As, insensitivity to such violence makes one vulnerable to it.
  • The doctor-patient relationship in India is more than merely “professional” as doctors in India are considered next to god.
  • The acceptance of this god-like status by Indian physicians is problematic, as at times, it works against them.
  • The illiterate and deprived people unleash violence on their god-like doctors when they make money illegally, commit flaws, and fall short of such standards of divinity.
  • Corporatisation - The rampant corporatisation of medical practice and erosion of medical ethics in private and public set-ups is another reason.
  • Corporatisation is known to have changed the behavioural patterns of healthcare personnel.
  • Misbehaviour, over-treatment, under-treatment and blatantly over-priced treatment have become a part of the medical culture, giving rise to dissatisfaction.
  • Limitations - The country’s medical fraternity, especially young doctors, should realise that they work with limitations of infrastructure.
  • The poor conditions of government hospitals, especially in rural India, is well known.
  • This leads to improper care and thus creates conditions rife for violence.
  • With just one doctor for every 2,000 people, the situation is only worsened.
  • State governments’ reluctance to fill vacancies in public hospitals, and the increasingly high cost of medical education in the private sector add to the above.

What are the other concerns?

  • The working hours for residents, who form the backbone of public-funded healthcare, is dreadfully irrational.
  • But no one, not even the medical fraternity, wants to raise the issue with the administrative authorities concerned.
  • Without raising such issues, it would be wrong for doctors, including those involved in the current agitation, to turn against patients.
  • Strikes by doctors is also debatable from an ethical standpoint.
  • Striking work complicates the issue in other ways too by loss of public sympathy and influence of the administrators, eroding the moral standing of the doctors.

What lies ahead?

  • In the Kolkata case, it should be ascertained whether there was a delay in treatment due to manpower shortage, as the patient’s kin claim.
  • West Bengal CM must reach out to the medical community and restore normality.
  • The Indian Medical Association (IMA) should help arrive at a solution that can address the concerns of both doctors and patients.
  • Besides, doctors should, in fact, send out the message that they are not against patients.
  • A simple way to assert this point would be to run the out-patient clinics outside their hospitals on days when they are on strike.
  • Doctors’ demands for a safe working environment and measures to ensure that unsuccessful treatments do not become a trigger for revenges have to be looked upon.
  • But given the varied reasons for the issue, it is fair now that the doctors’ attention is directed to systemic failures in the healthcare system.
  • At government hospitals, efforts to scale up infrastructure and the capabilities have to be taken up.
  • Solutions like fault-finding in security within hospital premises can only provide temporary relief.
  • Sensitising young doctors towards the problems of the poor and underprivileged is a more workable and sustainable solution.
  • Teaching behavioural sciences at undergraduate and post-graduate levels can be helpful at bringing the compassion that is needed.
  • Acquainting the young doctors to the prevailing social prejudices could also be a way to inculcate compassion.

 

Source: The Hindu, Indian Express

Quick Fact

Indian Medical Association (IMA)

  • IMA is the only representative, national voluntary organisation of Doctors of Modern Scientific System of Medicine in India.
  • It looks after the interest of doctors as well as the well being of the community at large.
  • It was established in 1928 as the All India Medical Association, and renamed as Indian Medical Association in 1930.
  • IMA, in 1946, helped in organisation of the World body, namely, World Medical Association, and thus became its founder member.
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