Violence against doctors is a symptom and not the disease. Structural and policy changes in India’s hospitals and not increased security. Comment.

The recent attack on junior doctors in a Kolkata hospital by angry relatives of a patient who had died there. Doctors across the country went on strike amid calls for strict action and increased security to them. The incidence throws light on the current state of affairs which are ripe by allegations of political instigation, overworked doctors, shortage of doctors as per the proportion of patients, etc. Although the bizarre demands of having increased security by bodyguards, or even bouncers is not the solution. One has to work on the chaotic state of affairs in the emergency wards of public hospitals in India. There is an absence of a globally recognized protocol of �triage� which involves a rapid examination of any patient to find if he or she needs any instant or early care or that care can wait. The absence of such triage means that every kind of patient was being put in the emergency wards. This has definitely led to an increased burden on hospitals and doctors. Moreover, people have become more aware of the care which is needed and which is administered. They have become more sensitive to slow ambulances and other lack of equipment. People who come to the hospitals for wellness if have to be given any bad news, they have to be properly counselled about it. Thus, the system of hospitals need an elaborate restructuring.