AN APPEAL BY DOCTORS

These days incidents of violence against doctors and staff are on the rise. The loss of a loved one does bring a lot of grief and heartache, but the attacks on doctors would not bring him back into this world. The consequences of the same then have to be faced by the society. Now, the medical practitioners are scared of treating very serious patients, and referring the patient to other centers wastes crucial time, which, in turn, is not good for the patient.

Doctors have now even started to avoid treating patients from a particular community or profession, who are more prone to sabotaging the establishment. This is not the right thing to do, but everyone wants his family and himself to be safe. Earlier, the doctors used to reassure the patient and his relatives of the person getting well, but now the relatives are warned about the prognosis of the disease and the doctors now tend to look for ways to save their skins even before starting the treatment of such a case. This is not at all in the best interest of the patients.

There is always a risk in the medical profession. No doctor wants to do any harm to his patient. Negligence and incorrect decisions are separate things, and sometimes there is no other option. Sometimes a doctor needs to take split second decisions, and cannot consult any textbook at that point of time. The decision taken at that instant could have done more harm than good, but a number of lives have also been saved due to prior such decisions by the doctor, who could’ve lost their lives if the decision was not taken. Sometimes a doctor does not even have time to think, and the decision comes to him as a reflex, which can be different for every case.

Even Kalpana Chawla had lost her life whilst on a mission. No engineer or scientist was ever blamed for that accident. Bridges and buildings fall down due to the mistakes of builders and engineers even when they have months, and sometimes years, to plan for the same. The verdicts of lower courts get overturned in higher courts, even after the judiciary has already pondered over the case for years. No one of them ever gets assaulted. A mistake by a pilot or a driver can result in loss of numerous lives. Everybody is just a mere human. And when some work is done by a human, mistakes are bound to happen. The thing being justified here is not that doctors should have the right to make mistakes, but that there should be certain limits. If it is case of gross negligence, one should let the law take its course, and not resort to “an eye for an eye”.

No one can treat a patient in a critical condition if doctors refuse to take him up. No minister, M.P. or M.L.A., or people belonging to a particular community or organization, who vent out their phony anger at doctors, making a mockery of the sentiments of general public, would be of any use at that time.

A doctor works day in and day out, not just for money but the responsibilities bestowed upon him as well. Many times a doctor goes to sleep after operating on a drunken accident victim at 3’o clock in the morning, only to be woken up by another emergency call at 5’o clock. Doctors and also humans, and deserve a good night’s rest. One cannot get the services of a plumber, mechanic, engineer, lawyer, CA, no matter how urgent it may be, in the middle of the night. Still, doctors hardly ever complain about their work schedule, they just want the respect and appreciation which they deserve.

It is a well known fact that students getting admissions in medical colleges are the ones who were considered more intelligent, capable and hard working than their counterparts. Every mother wants to see her son as a doctor. It is surprising that people accuse such people to be careless and sloppy once they graduate from medical colleges.

Many times a doctor leaves his personal commitments to take care of those in need. Children of doctors always complain that their parents never have time for them. Spouses of doctors complain that there is little obligation being shown towards the family due to the busy personal schedule. And still a doctor is termed careless.

There is a prevalent known racket of counterfeit medicines, which everybody knows about and still little is being done to curb this menace. People allege that a doctor has administered a wrong injection which has resulted in a patient’s death. But the truth remains that even the doctor does not know whether the injection was genuine. A not-so-old example is the death of 18 women at a mass sterilization camp in Chhattisgarh, and it was proved later on that the deaths were due to counterfeit medicines. Still, action was taken only against the operating surgeon, as the drug manufacturing firm belonged to the son of a minister.

Many times, it is perplexing even for the doctor that how a seemingly healthy patient suddenly dies without any apparent disorder. Medical science is still developing and still has many mysteries to uncover. This does not mean that the patient died due to erroneous treatment. And this definitely does not justify the assault on the doctor.

The author is not trying to justifying all the doctors, or that cases of negligence do not exist. But in such cases, one should approach the law, file a case, have a word with experts, and go through a proper channel. Violence with doctors, their family members and staff is not the right thing to do. And as is said, “An eye for an eye would eventually make the whole world blind”.