Assaults on doctors expose deepening crisis in J&K’s healthcare system

Srinagar, Jul 24: Assault on a resident doctor at Shri Maharaja Hari Singh (SMHS) Hospital here has triggered a storm of protests, allegations and counter-allegations. The incident and its aftermath lays bare a deepening crisis in J&K’s healthcare system - a frayed bond of trust between doctors and patients. A vicious cycle of frustration, fear, and unmet expectations are set to snap it.

On July 21, a patient, merely around 40 years of age, lost life in District Hospital Pulwama. As per the family, he was not attended to with the urgency that his condition demanded. They protested the “negligence” and demanded answers and action. Less than two days later, a patient lost life at SMHS. Young man, in emergency condition, needed attention, immediate, adequate. The attendants felt it was not provided, and assaulted the doctor on duty. Earlier this month, a female doctor at GMC Jammu was assaulted by relatives of a deceased patient.

The incidents at SMHS Hospital and GMC Jammu hospital resulted in strikes by doctors.

They demanded “action” against the assailants. The protesting doctors barred the entry to the emergency of SMHS Hospital temporarily, causing inconvenience and panic among patients. Patients demanded ‘empathy’. Doctors demanded ‘justice’. And some journalists who were covering the unfolding hyper-charged exchanges became the punching bags. Videos available on many social media platforms show doctors pushing the journalists and engaging in verbal abuse. Hospitals, that once bore semblance of a revered sanctuary, termed “Shifa-khana” locally, have become the source of agony for people.

Many feel that at the heart of this crisis lies an overloaded healthcare infrastructure, failing to cope with the sheer volume of patients. The SMHS Hospital, one of Kashmir’s largest tertiary care facilities, for example, has a daily patient load of thousands per day. In emergency alone, hundreds of patients visit per day. Doctors in emergency, a few, their number always under 10, have a shifts between 4 pm to 10 am next morning. Before 4 pm, they are usually posted in other hospital areas. Many doctors have complained of being “stretched thin.” Some, while speaking to Greater Kashmir said they want to give every patient time, “but with dozens waiting, it’s impossible to spend more than a few minutes per case.”

This overburdening leads to a crisis -patient sorting and prioritizing. Emergencies and non-urgent cases converge in chaotic emergency areas. The triage system is either absent or inadequately enforced in hospitals. Doctors are expected to make decisions on the ‘face value’ of the patient, or on the volume and strength of the attendants accompanying him or her.

For many patients, these decisions can be the difference between life and death, between indifference and negligence. The result is anger, frustration, and a growing chasm of mistrust. The erosion of trust is palpable - patients and attendants, desperate for timely care, perceive delays as callousness. Delay is callousness in many cases, robbing a patient of a chance he or she would have stood, if the right treatment would have been provided at the right time.

Doctors, people voicing their opinion about the recent events, feel, have “lost connect” with patients. “They make the patients feel unwelcome, uncared for. They act robotic, but with no efficiency of a robot,” Mohammad Ali, a resident of Delina Baramulla said.

Social media amplifies these grievances, with viral videos and posts accusing doctors of negligence often escalating tensions. On the other hand, doctors feel increasingly “vulnerable”. Across India, the Indian Medical Association has underlined that the fear of violence is a leading source of stress for doctors.

Doctors are now demanding stringent laws, non-bailable warrants for assailants, and enhanced security measures, including trained personnel in emergency wards and ICUs.

The protests and strikes created harrowing scenes, families pleading for care, journalists running for safety. A man from Pulwama, whose video is widely circulated over social media was allegedly turned away at the hospital’s locked gates. The scene painted the human cost of the crisis vividly .

Reforms are due on many fronts – the way a patient is received in hospitals, the way they are sorted, the way they are communicated to and the manpower and infrastructure upgrade. “Until then, the trust that binds doctors and patients will remain fragile, a casualty of a healthcare system struggling to save itself,” a netizen said.