Rahat Touhid , freelance journalist New Delhi rahattouhid329{at}gmail.comIncreasing violence against doctors is fuelled by frustrations at longstanding failures and discrimination in India’s health system, writes Rahat TouhidHarish Mohammad, a doctor interning at a government general hospital in Kochi, was attacked by two men visiting a patient1 on 1 July—India’s National Doctor’s Day. In 82% of cases, the perpetrators are family members or relatives of a patient. “The perception is that doctors can be beaten up without any consequence,” says Dipra Biswas, senior resident doctor at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Jodhpur. The pandemic has increased tensions, with more than 200 cases of violence officially registered by doctors across the country in the past three years, and not a single conviction.3 Actual numbers are expected to be higher, as few data are available on the number of cases pre-pandemic, particularly since most violence (anecdotally) occurs in rural hospitals where it goes unreported. “People don’t see the problem until there’s data to show the violence,” says Dipra, “And no [official] wants to spend money to solve a problem that they don’t perceive to exist in the first place.”

Source: The Hindu September 11, 2023 09:11 UTC