Don’t beat Doctors when patients die, Doctors are not gods.

By Shabana Choudhary

Patients, friends, family, people from the faith community, can certainly have an important dialogue with the healthcare team. But should be careful not to describe the situation as a competition between God and the care team.

They are humans just like us, yes they are skilled and better educated than us in their respective field of understanding human bodies but life and death is in the hands of almighty God.

Thus, doctors are just humans who do their work but the final decision lies in the superior’s hands.

Don’t we all believe that death is a natural event and it is pre-destined? Then, why are doctors blamed if the patient dies even after they do everything to save?

In the past, we have seen instances of assaults on doctors and other healthcare workers. That is unacceptable. For those who believe in God to be the life-giver and lifesaver, our doctors are representative of God on earth.

Doctors and health workers are on the frontlines in India’s battle against the COVID-19 pandemic. But in this hour of crisis, there are some people from the medical fraternity forced to demonstrate demanding their safety and security.

A spate of assaults on doctors and health staff in India has instilled a sense of fear and insecurity. If doctors are not safe how they will save people from novel coronavirus.

Doctors also fear that intermittent attacks on physicians may stop people from taking up the profession.

No one can deny the fact that over the last decade, doctors in India are feeling unsafe and threatened. A threat perception; a feeling of insecurity has been constantly looming over the already-burdened minds of medicos in our country.

Successive governments have been ignoring public health due to a deficiency of doctors in government hospitals. Instead of improving the public health sector, the governments have been trying to put the responsibility of public health on the shoulders of private doctors.

Medical professionals are grappling daily with emergencies in which there is a very thin line between the “live” and “dead” statuses of serious patients. The slightest error of judgment attracts the wrath of relatives and society, adverse propaganda in media, and huge compensations from consumer forums/ courts in the name of deficiency of service.

Doctors face assault, hospitals are ransacked after the death of a patient, and rioters are rarely punished. Today, doctors in India are in a frightened state of mind and usually don’t wish their wards to opt for their career.

Entrepreneurship (setting own hospital) among doctors has taken a back seat. Young doctors are left with three options: move to foreign countries for want of security and better prospects, join government service (if available), and finally joining corporate hospitals in search of a better deal.

Government hospitals are in a worse state with a huge rush of patients,  fewer specialists, and an unimaginable number of surgeries and deliveries with respect to the number of gynaecologists, surgeons and anaesthetists.

As there are certain responsibilities of doctors and other healthcare workers, similarly, responsibilities also have to be borne by patients and their relatives, political parties, hospital authorities, the law and order machinery, media and government to see that health care improves and violence against doctors is strongly dealt with.

Most of the time, it is verbal abuse. Emergency and ICU are the most violent venues and visiting hours are the most violent time. There is no reason to wait now to stop this violence against doctors and take preventive measures.

Many positive steps are needed to be taken by society as well as the government to boost the sagging morale of doctors in India; otherwise, the day is not far when there will be a total exodus of doctors from India! God forbid.

While a Kalina based Dr. Abdul Khalique said “ Family members will become aggressive once they lost their family members, but such things should not happen, many videos and pictures circulating on the social media where negligence on the part of doctors was shown, but all the doctors are not same. We are the frontline worrier“