Dr Jayesh Lele, National Secretary of Indian Medical Association (IMA)’s Hospital Board of India (HBI), claimed during his speech at IIM Ahmedabad (IIM-A) that nearly 40% of India’s doctors experience violence in some form during their professional life.

Speaking during a panel discussion, ‘Violence Against Doctors,’ organized by the Centre for Management of Health Services (CMHS), IIM-A, Dr Lele mentioned that the number is 55-60% for resident doctors and 30-40% for doctors in private practice. He added that although laws exist for protection of doctors in 19 Indian states, over the past 3 years there has been only one conviction (last year). The provision of imprisonment is up to 3 years and the offenders get bail immediately.

Other participants in the discussion included HCG Hospitals CEO Dr Bharat Gadhvi, Panchmahal range IGP Manoj Sashidhar, AMC DyMC Dr Kuldeep Arya and advocate Harsh Raval, among others.

The experts emphasized on the need for better communication and engagement with the patients’ relatives.

Dr Gadhvi stated that social media messages and ‘Dr Google’ had enhanced the friction points as the relatives do not have the same amount of trust in the doctor which was there a few decades ago.

The experts suggested legal training for medical professionals.

Sashidhar stated that there was a need to identify the reasons behind the attacks. He mentioned that answers to questions like ‘do specific doctors get targeted,’ ‘do specific departments report such cases more,’ ‘are the disputes taking place at some specific places,’ would help understand the nature of attacks and manage them.

Dr Arya was of the opinion that there is a need for some sensitivity from the medical profession as well. He mentioned that there are instances where the junior doctors casually announce the death of a child to the relatives. He added that one of the reasons for the repressed anger is the burden of cases each doctor has to handle everyday in the government set-up. (TNN)