‘Doctors have become scapegoats of a broken system’ Head to Head

First they wore helmets to work, and now, in the absence of any meaningful security, resident doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences will take taekwondo lessons to handle their attackers. VIJAY KUMAR, president of the Resident Doctors' Association, tells Veer Arjun Singh why self-defence is not against the code of saving lives. Edited excerpts: Are doctors being regularly attacked? What are the reasons? People are frustrated with the quality of health care in this country, the prime cause being infrastructure lapses. If a patient who needs immediate medical attention is not given a bed or a ventilator, the family is bound to be infuriated, and their anger is let out on the first doctor they find. While violence against doctors is infrequent in AIIMS, it is worse in some other hospitals. Nonetheless, doctors in AIIMS are not safe at all. Why have things come to such a pass that doctors now have to train to physically tackle patients and their families? We can’t improve the condition of the public health care. It’s in the hands of the policymakers. Health Minister JP Nadda can decide to increase capacity and staff, not us. Recently, there was ruckus in our ward and we called for the quick response team, as it is known, but they came after two hours. The security is not equipped to control unruly crowds. Many times, security guards just watch as mobs charge at doctors. And when they attack staff members, the guards run away. There are no CCTV cameras in wards or at entry and exit gates, so even after a doctor is beaten up, there is no way of identifying the culprits or recreating the sequence of events. Doctors are known to be benevolent who take an oath to provide care. Is a physical confrontation with patients not against their ethics? We are learning some selfdefence tactics so that we can escape injuries. This is just to protect ourselves. We have hired two black belt taekwondo trainers who will teach us how to defend ourselves over a course of three months starting May 15.

Medical students are engrossed in their academics and are unable to give time to physical fitness. I think being physically fit is extremely important

Resident doctors at AIIMS wore helmets to work in support of the strike called by doctors in Maharashtra. Has it led to a substantial outcome? The management says they have floated tenders to hire bouncers and increase the strength of paramedical staff. But nothing has moved so far.