KATHMANDU, SEPTEMBER 28Doctors and health professionals are agitating against government agencies for their failure to prevent attacks on doctors over alleged negligence/recklessness during treatment. India expels senior Canadian diplomat in growing row over alleged Indian role in Sikh's killing Taylor Fritz, Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton are putting the 'US' in the US Open According to immediate past president of Nepal Medical Association Lochan Karki, doctors were beaten/misbehaved with at five places - Hetauda (Makawanpur), Madi (Chitwan), Lamjung and Manipal Hospital (Kaski) and Patan Hospital, Lalitpur, in the last seven days.

Data shows that there has been a spike in incidents of attack against health professionals.Karki said a doctor might not be responsible for any negligence during a patient's treatment, but often the doctors are targeted by angry mobs over alleged negligence. "Sometimes hospital management may be responsible for anything amiss at the hospital or sometimes a nurse might have made a mistake, but it is always the doctors that are targeted by the mob," Karki said and added that Security of Health Workers and Health Organisations Act provisioned for jail term for attack on health professionals, but people, and even government attorneys, police and chief district officers were not aware of the law.Karki said that unlike in Europe and America where patients' families seek compensation for any negligence, patients' families in Nepal tend to physically attack health professionals.He said the government was chiefly responsible for increased incidents of attack on doctors and health professionals.

"Often when doctors are beaten, police or chief administration officers try to reconcile the two sides as they sympathise with the patients' families," he added.Karki said there should be a provision whereby all doctors and health professionals should be ensured for any negligence related compensation and people should be encouraged to seek compensation for any negligence during treatment.Advocate Raju Prasad Chapagai said there were legal remedies available for any negligence committed by health centres or health professionals, but the angry mob often took the law in their own hands and attacked doctors.

"People should be encouraged to lodge complaints at Nepal Medical Council, District Administration Office or the court," he said and added that as people guilty of beating doctors and health professionals were allowed to go without any charges, this impunity had led to increased attacks on doctors.Advocate Ramesh Parajuli, who specializes in medical negligence, said that doctors should be barred from seeing more than a certain number of patients in order to ensure that they provide quality services.

He also said that commercialisation of health professionals and ministers/ policymakers' investment in hospitals were the main reason health centres failed to provide quality services.Advocate Sunil Ranjan Singh said health professionals and the government both need to fix the weaknesses seen on their part.

"Health centres, mostly private ones, do not ensure deployment of senior doctors in emergency wards.

They tend to hire interns in their emergency wards and such health professionals fail to treat patients properly," Singh said and added that the government should also ensure that those that beat doctors must be punished.Karki said that the prevailing laws prescribe jail term for manhandling doctors/health professionals and yet the law remains unimplemented.

"It's only when we hit the street demanding action against attackers, that the government arrests attackers,"Karki added.

He said the government must ensure that all health centres have a display board at the entrance with the legal provisions that prescribe punishment for attack on doctors/ health professionals.

Karki said many patients' families did not have faith in the existing legal mechanism, so to address their concerns, every district must have a rapid response team.A version of this article appears in the print on September 29, 2023, of The Himalayan Times .

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