Stop overworking hospital doctors! : Message conveyed to Hospicio Hospital Margao by Benalium forum
The Benaulim Residents and Consumer Forum (BRCF) this past Saturday urged authorities of the Hospicio Hospital (Margao) to ‘end violation of human rights of doctors and patients’ by allowing doctors to work reasonable working hours
The forum’s convenor, “On several visits to patients at Hospicio hospital, sometimes at odd hours, what was noticed was the dangerous and inhuman practice of a duty doctor being made to carry out duties for 24 hours continuously. No where is such a practice being observed in or outside India. This is a breach of the directives of the Supreme Court judgement dated September 25, 1987 where in it clearly states –
In no case should the hours of work in a single shift stretch to more than eight hours, and in case of emergencies to 12 hours continuously
It is a proven fact that errors and accidents increase sharply in mental and physical ability when duty hours stretch beyond 10-12 hours. A doctor cannot be expected to be at his 100% performance level beyond 10-12 hours of continuous duty. This is even more important in the emergency ward wherer every minute or a lapse can prove to be fatal for an already exhausted doctor. If the patient suffers, who gets held responsible? The duty doctor and the department head.
A Deadly Practice
Baretto pointed out this simple comparison based on a psychometeric test to prove that forcing a doctor to perform extended hours of duty is a breach of law and dangerous –
Barreto pointed out that this was being brought to the hospital’s notice in advance for right measures like – hiring more doctors, making flexible shift, rest areas for doctors etc. would be implemented. He pointed out that it wasn’t necessary to wait till a VIP died to take notice of the state of overworked doctors at Hospice. “Negligence and lack of attention due to lack of proper sleep and rest of doctors in government hospitals is a known fact.”
It would be great if all hospitals took note of the above infographic and consquences of having overworked doctors on duty. Good doctors will get a bad name, simply because their bodies couldn’t withstand 18-24 hour shifts. Doctors are not GODs and neither are they super human ! Yes, they are prepared for the rigors of a medical profession but not at the rate of putting patients and themselves at risk.
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Original Post: Times of India
