Indian doctors demand tough law to deter attacks on healthcare staff

Rise in incidents fed by public distrust, challenges in getting affordable and reliable care

- Debarshi Dasgupta

Two doctors on evening duty at a government hospital in Maharashtra were stabbed and seriously injured by a patient in January 2023. Four months later, a 23-year-old doctor in Kerala was stabbed to death with scissors by a man she had been treating.

Then, in September the same year, an agitated patient in Delhi attacked his doctor with a screwdriver, leaving him with injuries to his neck, abdomen and fingers.

These incidents are just three examples of rising attacks against healthcare workers in India, a worrying trend aggravated by many factors.

They include widespread public distrust of doctors because of real or imagined instances of exploitative care and medical negligence, and challenges in getting affordable and reliable healthcare.

Data from the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition, a group of international non-governmental organisations working to protect health workers and services, indicated a sharp rise in incidents of assault against Indian healthcare workers - from 49 in 2017, to 155 in 2020.

This unrelenting crisis prompted doctors in India's capital to even hit the roads in protest in October 2023, demanding a stringent national law to deter attacks against healthcare workers. They also broadcast messages on the city's FM radio channels to raise public awareness about the issue.

More often than not, it is front-line workers such as nurses and junior doctors at public hospitals who face the brunt of these attacks. In 2019, doctors in West Bengal resigned en masse after a mob attacked two junior doctors. The attack was sparked by the death of a patient, whose family claimed the cause was due to medical negligence.