Over the last couple of days, we are facing a lock down of sorts in our healthcare system, especially in West Bengal. Doctors across the state are on strike. Common people are returning from hospitals without treatment.
The problem started when a critical patient, aged 85 died in NRS Medical College and Hospital. As a consequence, a mob of 200 people came in to attack doctors and medical interns in the hospital. They thrashed an intern’s skull.
It’s not the first time that doctors were attacked for the death of a patient. For whatever reason, when any inadequacy of the system is revealed, doctors are the first target.
Our society has set a standard for doctors, they are either god or the devil.
We must realize that to work effectively, a doctor needs a support system. They are always there to serve the patient but if hospital managements only think about revenue, what can the doctor do ? We need to implement a patient first model for every hospital.
Right now, we have less than 1 doctor for every 1000 people.
Doctors are overloaded. They are working 90-100 hours per week, doing 72-hour shifts at a stretch. Still, we expect 100% efficiency from them. It’s not really possible as a human being to do this which is exactly why we need trained nurses and midwives as support.
₹61,398 crore is not enough for almost 134 crore people of India. Our government should first work on having required infrastructure, resources and regulation in public hospitals. Only then will free treatments for the economically disadvantaged make sense. Increasing seats and quality education in medical colleges is also crucial.
Now coming to the responsibilities of the common people. We need to acknowledge that doctors are human beings too. They have families just like us. Saving the life of the patient is not always only in their hand. If we say, “death is always decided by the Almighty,” why are we attacking doctors?
If doctors break their code of conduct, there is ample law to see to it.
I had asked many people including doctors on how we can ensure the safety of those who often save our lives. The input from an young woman doctor really stood out.
“Safety cannot be achieved just by deploying some security personnel in the hospital premises. The root of these problems goes very deep. The first and foremost thing that is needed is to educate the common people. But unfortunately both the central and state government are reluctant to significantly increase the GDP for education and health, the two basic rights of human beings. Because they know it very well, ‘এরা যত বেশী জানে, তত বেশী বোঝে, তত কম মানে’ (the more they know and understand, the less they follow instructions).
Then comes the point of creating adequate man power and infrastructure so that a proper doctor-patient and doctor-nursing staff ratios is maintained. This is important so that no one get overwhelmed and burdened, and don’t have to work under the constant stress of scoring high even with limited resources. Lastly, safety and security measures need to be adopted. There need to be stringent laws for protection of doctors and punishment of miscreants and proper implementation of the same.”