The city’s medical fraternity is enraged over the recent suspension of four doctors from city government-run hospitals after they were accused of negligence and unprofessionalism over the death of a trauma patient, who succumbed to his injuries after being denied treatment at four city hospitals.
Delhi Medical Association President, Dr Ashwini Dalmiya, in an interview with Ashish Srivastava, says the accused doctors are being made scapegoats by the city government to hide the crumbling health infrastructure in the hospitals which forced these doctors to refer the patient to others.
Excerpts:
The Chief Minister has ordered dismissal and suspension of four doctors from multiple hospitals, alleging negligence and lack of ‘professionalism and empathy’, over death of a trauma patient. Why are you opposing the move?
The patient was first taken to Jag Pravesh Chandra hospital, which has no facilities for neurosurgery, and then to GTB Hospital, where the CT scan machine is defunct. He was then taken to Lok Nayak Hospital, where no beds were available. If the hospitals have no facility to manage the situation, how can it be a case of medical negligence or unprofessionalism? In the whole fiasco, the government only chose to punish the on-duty doctors. This is a classic case of scapegoat-ism, diverting the blame on the weakest link in the system. It will be appropriate for the administrators, the L-G and the CM, to take collective responsibility for this unfortunate death .
The order is based on the health department investigation report. Have you gone through the findings?
We have demanded access to the health department’s probe report in the best interest of natural justice for the poor doctors who we believe have been subjected to an unjust and unfair punishment.
Are you planning to challenge the suspension order in court or through any means of protest?
For now, we have appealed to revoke the dismissal and suspension orders of the doctors immediately and take adequate steps to provide better health facilities in Delhi hospitals for patients. The moment we get an official suspension and termination order, we will challenge it in the court of law. We have also planned to demonstrate our protest in the form of ‘gherao’ of the CM and the L-G office. We will also observe a black day when the whole medical fraternity in the city will work wearing black badges and carry out candle marches in solidarity with the affected doctors.
You are saying that such incidents happen due to the lack of medical resources at hospitals, and the medicos are at the receiving end. A counterargument from the patients’ is that they often face a lack of empathy and professionalism from medicos. How do you address it?
The root of this issue also lies in the overburdened medical infrastructure. A doctor in a government facility is expected to handle several hundreds of patients in fixed hours in OPDs. They skip lunch to attend to patients. Compare it with the medicos serving in private set-ups. They have a limited number of patients for consultation, and they can give full attention to each one of them. Our medical ethics guide us to be attentive and empathetic towards patients.
However, such things are not possible in the absence of required manpower to handle the load. I’m not saying what you pointed out is not happening. The lack of time, amid immense workload, is a major cause of irritability and communication gap between patients and doctors. Also I assure you, as a representative of the medical profession, that we will definitely introspect ourselves and will tell our doctors to be more communicative and compassionate.