INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
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.
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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
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
This article first appeared/also appeared in https://thehimalayantimes.com
