No Slap On The Wrist

Elected representatives who rough up doctors must receive exemplary punishment

The Thane video, in which a Shiv Sena corporator and his associates are seen assaulting doctors, has likely horrified readers. Alas, such violence is being reported up and down the country. From Bengal and Tamil Nadu to Delhi and Uttar Pradesh. An IMA survey has found more than 75% of doctors experiencing some form of violence at work. Sometimes, it’s blamed on the state of public healthcare – overcrowded and understaffed govt hospitals supposedly frustrating patients and their relatives, beyond control. But treating doctors as if they are personally responsible for systemic failures is awfully warped. And when politically powerful people do this, even the doctor’s odds of getting justice recede. 

Following public outrage, the Sena corporator, Ramesh Mhatre, has been arrested. The irony is that immediately afterwards he got himself admitted to a hospital, while doctors he is accused of assaulting, remain fearful. One of them has reportedly resigned, another is thinking of quitting medicine altogether. When a corporator walks into a hospital and acts as if everyone is answerable to him, it’s obviously not because any law says so. It’s just that being elected is widely interpreted as getting unlimited authority. Doctors have to routinely say “no” to people. There are no beds, surgery must wait, not all patients can be saved. That makes them unusually vulnerable to those who believe their power should produce immediate results.

One way to discourage violence against healthcare workers is to make it legally costly. Maharashtra already has a law to this end. The problem is inconsistent enforcement. As with so many other crimes, certainty of punishment is the best tool for discouraging them. Elected representatives scapegoating doctors for systemic failures should be penalised extra vigorously, because it’s extra egregious. Why blame exhausted medical professionals, some of whom are on 24-36 hour shifts? A much larger part of the blame for dysfunctional govt hospitals lies with elected representatives.

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