Dr. Seuj Kumar Senapati was in his first job and it was his 2nd day of work at a Covid care center in the Hojai district of Assam. He was asked to check a patient who was admitted that morning but he found him unresponsive.

The patient′s family and relatives were angry as he informed them their patient had died. They started hurling chairs across the room, broke windows, and abused all the staff. Dr. Senapati ran for his safety but more people joined the family and found him.

The men kicked Dr. Senapati and hit him on his head with a bedpan. They dragged him outside and beat him as he howled in pain and fear. He thought he won’t survive.

Several doctors in India are attacked by families of COVID patients since the beginning of the pandemic. The frequent complaint is they werent treated properly or no bed on time.

Doctors have protested and had also gone on strike for having stricter laws with more staff and better infrastructure. Hospitals are ill-prepared. No one came to Dr. Senapati’s rescue as the staff was being beaten up or they were hiding. A single guard cannot manage a mob.

He went straight to the local police station and registered a complaint. The state government took action and 36 people, including three minors were charged for the assault. 

Most attacks dont lead to police complaints and if they do, the accused are released on bail easily and the case is settled outside court. Doctors have said that there should be a specific law protecting them.

Dr. Jayesh Lele, Secretary-general of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) said that the existing laws are not effective and a strong law is urgently required so that people know the consequences of assaulting doctors. The IMA has been campaigning hard for a stringent law to prevent attacks against medical professionals.

Ms. Shrivastava is part of a research team at the Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy and has studied newspaper reports of almost 56 attacks between January 2018 to September 2019. The government had introduced a jail term of 7 years on any accused attacking health workers treating Covid patients. But no implementation had happened yet.

Globally, India has the worst doctor-patient ratio. According to World Bank estimates, in 2018, only 90 doctors per 100,000 people were available and the coronavirus pandemic has strained the thin workforce.

Ms. Shrivastava said people are dying due to Covid because of overpriced care, waning trust in the healthcare system. Media also reports about medical negligence that outnumber the doctors′ struggles, making people more suspicious.

Source: BBC News