September 2019

Dear Members,

Season’s Greetings.

Violence on doctors and Health Care establishments has touched a new low with the mass lynching of Dr. Deben Dutta on 31st August 2019 in Teova Tea estate in Jorhat, Assam. Indian Medical Association has been bringing to the attention of the Government , media and the people regarding this uncivil trend in our country. 21 states and 1 union territory have enacted a law against violence in Health Care establishments. Earlier this year the entire medical profession of India withdrew non essential services for 24 hours on 17th June 2019 against violence perpetrated on Dr Paribaha Mukharjee in Kolkatta. Subsequently Union Ministry of Health initiated proceedings involving IMA in drafting a Central Law under the concurrent list. The unfortunate incident in Assam underlines the urgent need to expedite this process for deterrence. IMA requests the Government of India to bring out the law as an ordinance in this regard immediately.

Violence on doctors and hospitals is a complex phenomenon and will require multidimensional institutional response . A law for deterrence alone might not have the desired impact. IMA also requests your esteemed Government to declare Hospitals as safe zones with structured security. It is also our considered opinion that inadequacies of infrastructure and Human Resources in Public Sector and out of pocket expenditure in Private Sector are the root causes of violence. High expectations, lack of understanding of limitations, patient load, lack of professional counseling are all contributory factors. Such determinants of violence also have to be addressed comprehensively. As a matter of fact IMA has been engaging the Central Government on this issue through an Inter Ministerial Committee right from 2015.

Safety and security of the hospitals have to be ensured in the interest of the patients. It is not possible to provide quality treatment to public in an atmosphere of fear and violence. Violence in the hospitals will only increase the sufferings of patients.

We are staunch supporter of ISRO and all those institutions who promote science, we are also disheartened the way our efforts of ISRO didn’t yielded the desired results. But as a son of science we know that science don’t believe in failures, it only believes in solutions. We can remember the very famous quote of Thomas Alba Edison when someone asked him that even after repeated attempts you failed to make a bulb, then he said “ I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work” and the rest is history, today his invention has modified the fundamentals of nature and it’s difficult to tell the difference between day and night because of him. So today ISRO found one of the ways which won’t work.

Being a doctor, apart from consoling our science partners it’s also our duty to create awareness among common public that science is an emerging phenomenon, it’s neither absolute nor finite, it always have humanitarian intentions to ease the lives of humans but it does not guarantee 100% success. We must learn to accept the limitations of science while enjoying its vast majority of benefits.

Most of us saw our PM addressing ISRO scientists after Chandrayan 2 missed landing and it was an exemplary show of his leadership qualities…he was awake till midnight and addressed those disappointed scientists at the time of need…

He shook hands with each scientist and at the end he hugged Mr Sivan and all were in tears.. what a priceless moment!!! We are lucky to have such a leader!! We are really proud of ISRO and our PM.. At the same moment a thought disturbed our mind.. After 10 yrs of efforts by more than 700+ scientists vikram cudnt walk on moon surface none the less orbitor is doing its job.. great.. After all disappointment is a feeling.. It is a human expression for failure.. All of us witnessed it on ISRO scientists today..

Its not different for neurologist when he looses a case of status epilepticus after all the care.. It is same for a physician in PUO.. It is same for an intensivist on a regular basis and we think it is much more for an anaesthetist for on table death..

This is what we are crying all these days that these are all not failures.. When a task of 650 cr budget .. 700+ scientis.. 10+ yrs can go wrong at penultimate moment… The so called failures can also happen in medical field.. Medical field is much more complex than space science….

We don’t expect applause for our daring decisions to handle complex cases…

We just expect an element of trust…. if not from law makers at least from our patients.

People of this country need to learn from Chandrayaan failure. That was Physics and Biology is even more unpredictable. As we stand behind our space scientists so we need to stand behind the doctors. Not every failure is a negligence, it could be just unpredictable Biology.

We congratulate IMA Vadodara Branch for successfully organised PPS Educational Zonal Seminar at Vadodara.

On behalf of GSB IMA & Organizing Team of GIMACON-2019, We request all of you to get registered in maximum numbers & make forth coming GIMACON-2019 at Daman a grand success. Long live IMA