Abusing a physician is unethical

Bangladesh Medical Association called upon all physicians to abstain from practicing for a day (May 23, 2017) in protest of vandalism due to the death of a student of Dhaka University. The University authority instantly filed a criminal case against 9 doctors and other officials of the Central Hospital at Dhanmondi Thana on charge of "negligence in treatment" that led to the unwanted death of a female student.

Vandalism in such a manner and arrest of doctors on a charge of wrong treatment before the allegation of negligence is proved cannot be accepted in any way. It does not justify to proceed and is not a sensible way of handling such a sensitive and delicate case.

This is not a new incident; such situations occurred many times in different hospitals of Bangladesh in recent past where physicians were abused. Situations were under control on reconciliation through mutual understanding and local mitigation.

Very recently in March 2017, in Mumbai, at Lokemanya Tilak Hospital one doctor Rahith Kumar was beaten mercilessly and around 2,000 doctors abstained from duties and assembled in a park with the slogan,"Save the Saviours." Many people gathered in the park in their support. At the same time, some public showed resentments outside and expressed to media, "These doctors are rascals." When asked about the reason of such perception, a few learned people opined, "Commercialisation of medical profession must come to an end to re-set doctor-patient relationship."

It is thought that this is the root cause of such episode where some citizens find doctors commercial without having any ethical sense of values and fully motivated how to earn more money and accumulate more resources to start a diagnostic centre as quickly as possible.

Some experts in the health sector have echoed equally stating that private medical colleges are charging very large capitation fee to gain admission and medical education became an investment for future earnings. They are admitting medical students in consideration of huge money and so after getting out of colleges, these doctors act like shylocks to earn more and more money to repay their loan and get return of their huge investment. What a peculiar situation prevailing in the country!

Besides, in some medical colleges, private hospitals and clinics, there are many touts who deceive the patients by promising some false assurances of best medicare at cheapest rate in some clinics privately managed. When at one stage, this turns out to be a bluff and patients feel cheated and frustrated. This results to direct assault on doctors with complete chaos which is undesirable and unacceptable.

Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy or many other world renowned physicians gained their fabulous fame because of their correct understanding of the problem of the patients. Always patient cannot correctly say what has happened to him. S/He is a good doctor who can detect from patient's sporadic and spontaneous words her/his problems in reality. Sometimes headache occurs due to eye sight problem; it is the doctor to guess and go in depth to prescribe glasses, not paracetamol to reduce headache.

Dr Devi Shetty gained his popularity not because of his very sharp and accurate surgery but he talks to his clients, makes him/her understand his/her problem and brief him/her correctly what type of surgical operation he is going to perform.

It is known as doctor-client relation what is practically and for all purposes is gradually reducing due to heavy engagement of doctors in hospital and private clinics from early morning to late night. Sometimes, such a physician gets very little time to listen to the client or see their faces correctly before prescribing or taking the surgical equipment to operate.

Many people are in view that such a situation is prevailing because of acute scarcity of doctors and when a patient does not find any option to choose or go elsewhere.

Secondly, the expenditure to incur is also a question. In Bangladesh, public in average pays 65% of medical expenses out of own pocket and about 64% patients take medication on the advises of quacks and traditional healers.

Many of Health and Family Welfare indicators of Bangladesh are very promising and laudable in comparison to many countries. We have achieved almost all MDGs and advancing very quickly to attain the targets and goals of SDG by 2030. Bangladesh is an exporter of drugs and medicine in around 125 countries and the pharmaceutical industries earned their reputation around the world. The physicians are also good but cannot do justice always due to heavy engagement and other reasons of which earning more is one of them.

Social scientists are in view, there should be some regulatory framework so that such a situation of doctor-patient relation does not aggravate further. The violence against doctors cannot be condoned on any grounds. It is unethical and untenable. It is the time to identify root causes of such increasing assaults on medical practitioners and take step to reduce the widening of the gaps between doctor and clients. The commercialisation of medical profession must come to an end.

The writer is a former advisor to the caretaker government.

E-mail: dknath888@gmail.com