Intolerance and Violence Against Doctors

Abstract

Intolerance and grouse against doctors is a global phenomenon but India seems to lead the world in violence against doctors. According to World Health Organization, about 8-38% healthcare workers suffer physical violence at some point in their careers. Many more are verbally abused or threatened. Public is almost behaving like health sector terrorists. The spate of increasing attacks on doctors by damaging their property and causing physical injury is not acceptable by any civilized society. The public is becoming increasingly intolerant to a large number of social issues because of poor governance and vote bank politics. There is a need to arrest the development of further distrust between doctors and their patients/relatives, otherwise it will compromise all achievements of medical science and adversely affect healing capabilities of doctors. Rude and aggressive behavior of the patients or their family members, and arrogant and lackadaisical approach of the doctor, adversely affects the doctor-patient relationship and the outcome of the patient. The doctors, hospital administration and government must exercise "zero tolerance" with respect to acts of violence against healthcare professionals. It is possible to reduce the incidence of intolerance against doctors but difficult to eliminate it completely. The healthcare providers should demonstrate greater compassion and empathy with improved communication skills. The hospitals must have adequate infrastructure, facilities and staff to handle emergencies without delay and with due confidence and skills. The security of healthcare providers, especially in sensitive areas, should be improved by having adequate number of security guards, frisking facilities, extensive CCTV network and availability of "Quick response team" to handle unruly mob. In case of any grievances for alleged mismanagement, the public should handle the situation in a civilized manner and seek redressal through Medical Protection Act and legal avenues. Laws to prevent violence against doctors do exist but they need to be made more stringent and implemented properly.

Reforming medical education admission and training in low- and middle-income countries: who gets admitted and why it matters

“…The systemic nature of negative provider behaviors in LMICs contributes to poor quality of care which, in turn, likely contributes to low service utilization and poor health outcomes. Additionally, as patients become increasingly dissatisfied with, and distrustful of, the medical community, providers in some countries are experiencing verbal harassment, physical attack, and death threats [6]. As such, failure to identify and address negative provider behavior could have wide-reaching consequences for both patients and health professionals.…”

Violence against doctors

“…A doctor should understand some of those patient-related characteristics which may be associated with violence. While most of the items are associated with background psychological disturbance or substance abuse in the patient in the western examples of violence 8 , it does not have much implication in the current scenario of violence against doctors that has engulfed this country 4 5 19 23 24 25 26 27 28 .…”

“…In this context, the observation by Mishra 21 of the general deterioration of the morality ethics of intellectual class in India and rise of pseudo intellectuals as well as his suggestion that the violence could also be viewed with the prism class war 22 need careful study. Several prescriptions for preventing violence to doctors have been provided in the literature starting from changing the curriculum of study, developing more communication skills, understanding by taking note of patients who could be violent, being cautious at violent venues, getting ready to run from the scene if situation demands, educating patients and their relatives, improving healthcare, etc 8 14 19 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 . While some of these prescriptions are implementable, some are obviously not.…”

Formas de violencia institucional en la sala de espera de urgencias en un hospital público de México

“…2 Se muestra la violencia institucional ejercida sobre las personas que buscan atención médica y sus acompañantes. En los estudios sobre violencia institucional se diferencian aquellos que abordan el problema como maltrato y abuso ejercido sobre pacientes o estudiantes de medicina, y aquellos que lo abordan en términos de violencia, ejercida por pacientes sobre el personal de salud, y contra los usuarios (10)(11)(12)(13)(14). Muchos estudios construyen su objeto como un problema de calidad de la atención y no hacen una crítica de fondo de las instituciones de salud como agentes de control del Estado (15).…”