The Game of Thorns....

The recent incident of doctor being beaten by angry patient relatives left me to wonder what is going on...

In my experience most of the times these incident take place in either semi rural or urban areas with low education/awareness patients...we need to find a way to handle such patients with different form of care and communication..they are patients with limited knowledge, so, much doubts and uncontrolled emotions...most corporate hospitals handle this as "code violet" where on the ring alert all the hospital staff is instructed to gather at the scene of incidence...based on the evidenced fact that a crowd usually gets controlled when they see a bigger crowd and don't harm or hurt the health care staff or property...and one experienced senior is responsible to talk to the grieving agitated party and calm them down...all though I do totally agree that these incidents are bad and should not happen ever...It is just a lack of communication which can be improved to avoid such incidences..........honestly it's relieving to know that as compared to many other countries India surprisingly has the least of such incidents

Mine own condition of Diabetes and my experience with healthcare is such. The doctors first kept prescribing metformin but due to my utter hectic healthcare role of Quality manager I failed to keep up with the diet and medication. Long hungry durations and missing dosage led to ever rising sugar levels and HbALc counts. The Doctors I consulted could only consell me of adherence and consequences, and I could just not explain the pressures of survival in the job. There was a gross mismatch of expectation and delivery, with survival of job vs survival of body.

Soon I migrated to insulin injections which lead to more weaker, slower and less active abilities of performance. Mostly desk bound now, Curiosity befriended me and I started exploring more about my diabetic condition and the advancement.

Shocking information about how one doctor claimed that Insulin in fact worsens the diabetic patients conditions, because most diabetic patients are producing insulin already and injecting more will create more glucose and fats which makes them obese, but doctors continue to prescribe them because they are afraid to be sued if the patient dies of diabetic coma. But will not be sued if he dies of cardiac, kidney liver or neuropathy. Then there was another Doctor who claimed that taking insulin injections on the abdomen punctures the nerves running down which is why neuropathy and paresthesias is common in insulin dependent patients.

Now I wonder, if a patient who is educated and I having internet access is bound to visit the net and explore. How will such contradictory information play on the mass with a non medico background.

With growing mistrust and increase of frauds and cheats, its difficult to believe and trust anyone. The mentally traumatized and emotionally weak relatives of the patient who is dying or dead is too sensitive to cope with the sudden unexpected loss and if he is not communicated in the right and professional manner right from the first interaction it is definitely going to back fire.

It is definitely a game of thorns for a doctor to treat a patient in these fraudulent times and it is always safe to communicate with patient and family and educate and prepare them for all the situations and eventualities. All said and done, when you are compassionate, concerned and have a honest caring for your patient and you show it in your actions and words, it reflects in the eyes of the patients and family. all we need to do is honestly compassionately communicate.