Gone are those days when being a doctor was considered noble and doctor patient relation considered sacred.
These days doctors and nurses have to face more lawsuits, insults, assaults and at times even mob violence. The present generation of care seekers seem to be much more intolerant than ever before. As people are getting used to a comfortable and instantaneous lifestyle, similar expectations remain when people approach a healthcare centre.
Many view healthcare as plain business and a money eating machine than a noble service provider, and to an extent they’re not wrong in thinking so. But the acts of a few seems to have represented the acts of the many and there’s a lack of understanding about the amount of work and money it takes to run a hospital and carry out procedures.
There seems to be a definite lack of empathy when it comes to people seeking treatment. What could be the reasons behind the angry mob culture in hospitals these days?
Patients and their attendants complain of lack of understanding and empathy from medical staff. To some extent that could be true but is it really the cause?
One reason for sure is the worsening doctor-patient ratio. The amount of people seeking medical care seems to be much higher than what the medical staff can handle leading to impatience, chaos and disharmony. Will creating more medical colleges solve the issue? Probably, but this will dilute the medical profession and might lead to unhealthy competition among medical fraternity.
By allowing this to happen, we are just leaving the doctors to find patients on their own. Patients will have more options to choose from and won’t mind attacking a doctor or two, “as there’s always another one available nearby”. This leads to doctors being the scapegoats of the system. This instead of solving the problem might end up making it worse.
This might also lead to unhealthy practices amongst doctors, as every physician will need his/her bread and butter. If a person has toiled hard and sacrificed his/her childhood and prime years of his/her life to become a physician, don’t you think he/she deserves a fair chance in the system to grow? Without this opportunity might come frustration and depression. This might disturb the noble ideals and values, in a society where a physician doesn’t feel respected. What you give is what you get after all.
Simply expecting a healthcare provider to selflessly serve is ignorance. They are humans after all. Will the society give free food and electricity to these physicians? I don’t think so. They need to be treated like humans, as they are just like you or me who have simply decided to work hard on his/her dreams to serve the society.
Then what do we do? Another approach is to upgrade existing health infrastructure, make latest drugs available at primary healthcare level and improve support staff. Capacity expansion seems like a logical approach. Have we done enough in this regard? Can we do more?
How is the healthcare infrastructure in your town or city? Do you think what’s available is good enough to support the existing population?
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