Violence against doctors on the rise- RGUHS proposes self-defence training
Karnataka- Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS) in Bangalore has recently proposed self-defence classes for doctors in emergency wards and outpatient departments in its affiliated colleges, where the doctors will deal directly with a large number of patients and their attendants. The move comes after several incidents of violence against doctors took place in hospitals.
The move has been welcomed by the Association of Resident Doctors. However, at the same time, the doctors also said that adequate security arrangements at the hospital gates and limiting the number of patient attendants in the hospital are also the need of the hour.
Self-defence classes will teach the doctors how to defend themselves, avoid injuries, and plan an immediate response to bring the situation under control, as well as attempt to calm the patient's family members. Self-defence is among a slew of new initiatives that RGUHS is introducing in the next few months.
On this, the RGUHS Vice Chancellor said, "We will form a committee to decide how to implement some of our new programmes."
He further added, "Apart from this, we are planning classes on digital literacy and financial literacy."
Along with this, offline classes will be conducted for serving doctors in the regional centres of Karnataka. In addition, the university will also have videos, demos and short videos that will be shared with the doctors, reports TOI.
Meanwhile, welcoming the proposal, Karnataka Association of Resident Doctors president Dr Shivaprasad Sahu said security deployment was vital for the safety of doctors. He said, "It is common, especially in govt hospitals, that a large crowd enters the emergency wing and turns violent if the patient's condition worsens. We experienced many situations when we had to run for cover as the mob started attacking us. While self-defence alone might not help in such situations, there must be sufficient security at the entrance and permit only two people to accompany a patient”.
