In 2011, a nationwide study conducted by Mirza et al at the Aga Khan University Hospital (AKUH) found that 76.9 per cent of physicians from nine major tertiary care hospitals faced verbal or physical abuse from patients or their caretakers, and that male physicians are more likely to suffer abuse.
Not surprisingly, the study reported that this has led to reduced job performance.
The Cost of Saving Lives
By Butool Hisam / Creative: Aamir Khan. Published in The Express Tribune, Sunday Magazine, January 11th, 2015.
In the late hours of a warm August evening four years ago, a victim who had just been in a car crash was brought inside the emergency department of a Karachi hospital. He had a subdural hematoma, a collection of blood outside the brain, and he needed emergency surgery.
Dr Nadir Haider was a part of the neurosurgery team that scrubbed in immediately. About an hour later, shouts were heard outside the operation theatre and he went out to investigate. From behind a door, he saw that six armed men had entered the Emergency Department and were shouting at the administrator in charge that they had a wounded patient. Back in the operating theatre, the doctor who was performing the surgery didn’t waver from his spot but cautioned his team to hide.
… Dr Haider has been a witness to many incidents like that one night in August. “I am expected to work in a very risky environment, and the average person blames me for everything that happened to a patient even before they reach the hospital. If I wanted an adrenaline rush, I would have joined the medical division of armed forces. The government and the hospital could do so much more to improve the security at these major emergency departments.”
Armed thugs regularly threaten doctors.
… what is it that still motivates doctors to work?
“Our people are simple, underprivileged and burdened. Yet, they survive, and face the circumstances bravely.
I saw the purest love and devotion of a son to his mother.
This is why we do what we do. We need to help these beautiful, brave people who fight everyday just to live.
No mob can stop us.”
– Dr Jahanzeb Effendi, Jinnah Postgraduate Medical Centre
Read the complete story at The Express Tribune | The Cost of Saving Lives
By Butool Hisam – medical student at DOW Medical College, Karachi, and a blogger.
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