Poor doctor-patient contact root of hospital brawls: Experts

Hyderabad: Lack of proper communication between doctors, hospital staff and patients is being cited as one of the main reasons for attacks by patient’s relatives on doctors and hospitals. The issue has come to forefront in the wake of recent incidents of doctors being attacked by patients’ attendants in Niloufer and Gandhi hospitals in the last week.

Experts said that neither doctors are engaging in talks with patient’s relatives nor doctors support staff or the hospital help desk are making efforts to speak to them patiently, even in critical cases, which is why physical attacks are becoming very frequent these days.

Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI), Hyderabad is making an effort to impart communication and PR skills, crisis management approach etc. for doctors and their support staff, hospital help desk employees and also the paramedical staff. A five-day training programme, certificate course in public relations for hospital staff has been announced by ASCI from April 8-12 for staff from the hospital and healthcare industry.

Sharing details, programme director Dr S Ramu said that no hospital is adopting a planned or scientific approach when it comes to dealing with patients and hence unsavoury incidents are being witnessed in case of patient’s death.

“Crisis management approach also goes a long way in ensuring such attacks do not occur. One can easily sense the behaviour of the patients' relatives if they stare, speak in loud tone, look anxious or mumble while speaking which means they are not normal.

Accordingly, hospital staff should make them calm by offering them a seat, water to drink and hearing about their issue patiently. Such efforts help in reducing friction between both parties.

What we also came to realise is that majority of staff lacks communication and PR skills,” he said. ASCI is taking the help of Indian Medical Association (IMA) to reach out to over a thousand hospitals so that they could benefit from this one-of-its-kind training programme.

Dr Ramu said that they will be inviting PR professionals, legal professionals (to explain about rights of patients among other things), editors from media and also spiritual gurus for the five-day programme. Even practising doctors and PG doctors are invited to take up the course, he added.

Meanwhile, C Raghu, Director of Aster Prime Hospitals in the city, said that this is a good initiative by the ASCI as it is not just doctors alone, but the hospital staff who also have to pitch in to ensure good relations between patient and doctor. “Hospital staff should be trained on communication skills, needs of the patient and societal demands as well as crisis management approach,” he felt.