Nationwide doctors protest indicates long ignored woes 

The ongoing doctors strike that started from West Bengal on 11 June has triggered a full-fledged nation-wide protest. Doctors across the country are sitting on dharna demanding better laws to protect medical professionals. The Indian Medical Association (IMA) took cognizance of the situation and extended its support after coming across many related incidents of attack on doctors.

The incident that triggered the unrest was of when a young doctor in Bengal was hit by a brick on the head by assailants, resulting in skull fracture. He is now in a critical condition. Mamata Banerjee and the governments apathy towards the accident worked as the final nail on the coffin.

The overwhelming support that the movement has gathered with various states joining in is an evidence that the issue was a slow brewing storm, one which remains neglected since years. Over the years reports of physicians being assaulted, abused and attacked have been surfacing and dying down without any full-proof solution put in place for the issues.

Sometimes, the attacks were so vicious, the attacked victims were hospitalised with broken bones, slipping into depression and death in extreme cases.

Incidents of attacks

On May 20, Casualty Medical Officer Dr Anvesh in the Emergency Wing of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), Hyderabad, was attacked by the relatives of a patient. Even with policemen in vicinity, the attack was carried out where the doctor was abused with foul language and threatened.

In a grievious incident in Tripura this year on April 13, a gynaecologist at Indira Gandhi Memorial Hospital had to be admitted to trauma care after being brutaly attacked by family members of a deceased 25-year-old pregnant woman who died of cardiac arrest.

In Amethi, Uttar Pradesh on March 10, a government doctor was critically injured after attack by criminals.

A post-graduate doctor at Niloufer Hospital, Hyderabad was physically assaulted in February by kins of a deceased child who alleged lack of care by the hospital. Even though the hospital had nine personnel of Telangana State Special Protection Force (TSSPF) and private security guards to protect the staff from relatives of patients, relatives attacked the staff.

Another case of doctors assault in Hyderabad took place in December 2018, when two friends attacked Paediatrician Dr Michael Aranha so barbarically that he was left with broken ribs and punctured lungs. Later, one of the assailants alleged that the doctor misbehaved with his wife, angered by which he decided to attack the doctor with the help of his friend.

Two months before the above incident, on 26 September 2018, Banaras Hindu University (BHU) reported clash between students and resident doctors after one doctor refused to admit a relative of one of the student citing lack of beds at the hospital. The agitation grew so much that state police had to be called in to get the situation under control.

In Chennai, on June 2018, a 23-year-old doctor on duty at Stanley Medical College was beaten up by a 75-year-old Jayachandran who had accompanied a diarrhoea patient. The octogenarian relative yelled in pain when the doctor tried to inject the needle while inserting an intravenous line, which prompted Jayachandran to hit the doctor.

In another extreme case, Dr. Singh, a 51-year-old paediatrician at community health centre in Jaspur, Uttarakhand was attacked by a mob on April 20, 2016, at his clinic after which he died.

Impact of attacks on doctors

These cases are only the tip of an iceberg, a study published by IMA in 2017 points out the nearly 75 per cent of doctors faced some form of violence while on duty. The attack sometimes affects the mental state of doctors leaving them with post-traumatic stress, anxiety, fear and insomnia. Some doctors relocate to other places and profession, leaving the field of medicine forever.

Dr. Birendra Kumar who was a pediatrician in Sanjay Gandhi government hospital in Delhi was manhandled by relatives of a baby who died. He suffered fracture in hand during the attack. After the incident he shifted to Bihar and now runs his clinic.

Law to protect doctors

Protection of Medicare Service Persons And Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention Of Violence And Damage To Property) Act, also known as the Medical Protection Act (MPA) was passed in 2008, in 19 states to protect the doctors from attacks. But the lack of a provision in Indian Penal Code (IPC) or Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) makes it hard to enforce.

According to the law, attackers or offenders can get a jail term of up to three years and a fine of ₹50,000 if found guilty.