Attack on doctors persists as Tamil Nadu lacks clarity on Act

The Tamil Nadu Medicare Service Persons and Medicare Service Institutions (Prevention of Violence and Damage or Loss to Property) Act, 2008 states that stringent action would be taken against an individual or group of persons assaulting or deterring a doctor or hospital staff from discharging their duties. Also, the assaulter has to bear expenses for properties damaged in addition to imprisonment for 3 to 10 years.

Doctors and nurses in government hospitals said that there is a sense of threat and insecurity as the kin of patients fails to understand the medical complications. “There is a huge workload on the government doctors as the footfall is high and number of doctors is low. It is not possible to communicate and convince the patient or their relatives about the medical condition or the complications associated with it. It is a natural tendency for the relatives to be not able to accept the negative outcomes of treatment. However, they need to understand that doctors serve them in the best possible way and assaults would not help the situation,” Dr P Ravi, an orthopaedic surgeon at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital, said.

Agreeing with Ravi, Dr Sarath, a postgraduate student at RGGGH said that they come across relatives of patients who are enraged about the slow progress of improvement or other complications on an everyday basis. It is not possible for them to understand medical terms. “Therefore, we need to have a counsellor in all wards to establish communication between the doctor and the family of the patient s,” Sarath added.

While the installation of CCTV cameras and increased security staff has been done at government hospitals, such things do not ensure enough security to the medical staff. Though the Act has been brought up, there is no proper implementation by the government to protect the government medical staff. Dr GR Ravindranath, general secretary of the Doctors’ Association for Social Equality (DASE), said that the government must address the fundamental issue with healthcare. “The healthcare system has become privatised and free quality medical care needs to be ensured to all. There is complete commercialisation of medical services and that angers the public the most,” he said.

Though the state health department officials said that the incidents of attack on medical staff are not so common in the State, they admitted that the Act has not been used to take action in most of the cases. “We do realise the need of appointing counsellors to ensure better communication between the public and the doctors. However, most of such cases are dealt between the two parties at the hospital level and action is not needed to be taken as per the Tamil Nadu Government’s Act 48 of 2008,” public health director Dr K Kolandaisamy said.