After BJP MP’s hospital rampage, doctors work in fear
- Recent incidents of attacks on medical staff have prompted doctors to lobby for ‘defensive’ admission practices.
- Doctors claim patients are often brought at advanced stages of illness, making treatment difficult.
- Police have been criticised for shoddy handling of assault cases at hospitals.
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FollowA day after BJP MP Ananth Kumar Hegde allegedly thrashed three doctors at a private hospital in Karwar on January 2, doctors and medical associations in the state have started to lobby for tighter procedures for admission of high-risk patients.
Watch BJP MP thrashes doctors and hospital staff
Hegde was reportedly angry at the doctors for the quality of treatment provided to his mother. Dr Sudhakar, who has been president of the Karnataka branch of the Indian Medical Association, said doctors and hospitals wanted to adopt “defensive” admission practices. These practices involve getting relatives and bystanders accompanying patients to fill up forms absolving the hospital of responsibility in case of eventualities and also involve multiple diagnostic tests.
He said the demand for adopting these defensive practices was linked to delays in implementation of the Karnataka Prohibition of Violence Against Medicare Service Personnel and Damage to Property in Medicare Service Institutions Act, 2009. He referred to a recent incident of house surgeons at the Hassan Institute of Medical Sciences being attacked by relatives of an accident victim who died at the hospital.
He said, “We have asked the doctors to give complaints on both the Karwar and Hassan incidents, and we will protest from the IMA too. A circular will be sent to all hospitals to adopt defensive medical practices and hence the admission process of patients will become tougher.”
Strongly condemning recent assaults on doctors on the grounds of medical negligence, cardiologist Dr C.N. Manjunath said relatives of patients should take the legal route instead of resorting to attacks. "This is the very reason why many hospitals make patients go to other hospitals during emergencies as they fear attacks by relatives in case the patient dies. Many patients will come to hospital during the end stages and their survival chances are very tough," he said.
Criticising police inaction in many attack cases, Dr Prashanth Urs of the National Neonatology Forum (Bengaluru chapter) said police are often unaware of the relevant legal sections under which such incidents should be charged. "When few of our doctors were attacked last year by a patient’s relative following the patient’s death, we had to make frequent visits to the police station with CCTV footage from the hospital. Finally, after a week, the attackers were arrested," said Dr Urs.
