Majority of Indian doctors fear violence, are stressed, says Indian Medical Association

National Doctors’ Day is celebrated on July 1 in India to honour Dr BC Roy-- a physician and the second chief minister of West Bengal.

Four in five Indian doctors feel stressed out, of which every second doctor attributes this stress to fear of violence, says Indian Medical Association’s (IMA) survey data released on Saturday on the occasion of National Doctor’s Day.

“The figures are startling as 82.7% of the doctors surveyed felt stressed in their profession, while fear of violence was the main stressor for as many as 46.3% doctors, and 57.7% have thought of hiring security in their premises,” says Dr K K Aggarwal, national president, IMA.

Fear of violence is followed by fear of being sued in 24.2%, and fear of criminal prosecution in 13.7% of the doctors.

There has been a growing anger among doctors across the country, for which they have been protesting in different ways in their hospitals, against relatives of patients manhandling them.

Most doctors— 56%, did not get a comfortable 7-hour sleep most days of the week.

Conducted online over a period of 15 days, the survey received responses from 1681 doctors including general practitioners, physicians, surgeons, gynecologists and super specialists working in private out patient departments, nursing homes, corporate hospitals and even government hospitals.

“The medical profession is undergoing some of the toughest times today with its nobility and integrity at stake. Today medicine is just another profession, and doctors have become like everybody else: insecure, discontented and anxious about the future,” says Dr RN Tandon, honorary secretary general- IMA.

“This survey was aimed at analysing how happy and satisfied doctors are with their profession. The results prove the fact that doctors are not very happy with what they are doing and a large part of it is due to lack of patient trust in them.”

Dr Aggarwal, says, “A sizeable chunk does not want their children or grandchildren to take up this profession.”