The one-million-odd doctors in India’s 35,000 cacophonous, overcrowded government hospitals are under siege. Notwithstanding the shortage of staff and equipment in the funds-starved public hospitals, the medicos in their 20s and 30s strain their every nerve to treat patients with love and care. And yet, when a patient dies for no fault of the doctor, the illiterate, grief-stricken, ranting-and-raving relatives jump down the throat of the highly-educated physician and often beat the living daylights out of the bleeding-heart healer.
To tell the truth, murderous assaults on doctors are on the rise with vandalism in hospitals becoming the order of the day despite tighter security, stricter laws and strike threats by the clinicians. Worried stiff, the hardpressed medicos, including their female colleagues, have been forced to learn the ropes of self-defence skills from black-belt champions.
Young doctors in Delhi’s....
