AS THE nation observed Doctors’ Day on July 1, in a tweet, PM Modi said, “India is proud of the efforts of all doctors in fighting COVID.” With the medical community playing a lead role in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, the Prime Minister has always been in praise of doctors and other medical professionals. Doctors’ Day is observed in the honour of noted doctor and former West Bengal chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy, whose birth and death anniversaries fall on July 1. PM Modi in his Sunday ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme on radio remembered Dr BC Roy. Speaking about doctors in the backdrop of Doctors’ Day, PM Modi said, “...We must pay tribute to our doctors who ensured that India did not succumb to the challenges posed by COVID-19.”

 

“Service rendered by doctors in the last one-and-a-half years is exemplary; I thank them on behalf of 130 crore Indians… Our doctors, their knowledge and experience are helping us in battling this virus,” he said while addressing the medical fraternity. Admitting that the Government has put maximum thrust on the health care sector, Modi said its budget allocation has also been doubled. “We have come up with a Credit Guarantee Scheme of Rs 50,000 crore to strengthen the health infrastructure in such areas where there is a lack of health facilities,” he stated. Referring to violence against the health workers during the pandemic, he assured that the Government is committed to the safety and security of the doctors and other medical staff. The Government of India had established Doctors’ Day in 1991 to recognise the contributions of B C Roy. He played an important role in the establishment of the Medical Council of India and the Indian Medical Association. This day is celebrated to acknowledge the role of doctors in the progress of this nation. No one can doubt the contribution of doctors in mitigating the woes of the people during the peak of the pandemic.

 

As many as 730 doctors have succumbed to the novel coronavirus infection during the second wave, according to data available by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) in mid-June. Despite limitations of multiple kinds, our doctors did their best to take the country out of the catastrophic occurrence. There is a shortage of doctors in the country, every doctor is burdened beyond normal human capacity, there is a lack of hospitals and shortage of an adequate number of hospital beds to handle crises of unprecedented scales, there are large swathes of demographic areas which are still not well served by doctors and hospitals, there is a shortage of drugs and advanced equipment in many hospitals. Doctors here often have to work long hours under difficult conditions – there are power outages, interference by the kin of the patients, political pressure at times, corruption, poor management, poor infrastructure, and other such issues - that plague the work culture. Yet, doctors continue to serve, because they are morally and ethically committed to serving the people. They have dedicated their lives for the people at the cost of their family life, leisure, and recreation, and even often at the cost of their life.

 

They put in years of immense hard work in their studies to become successful doctors. But while in other professions, the hard work brings immediate professional prosperity, it takes years of slogging for doctors to reach a position of relative comfort. Added to that, they continue to have life risks greater than their counterparts in many other professions. The professional ladder of success for doctors is tedious and a tough test of patience. We, as a society, need to do our best to support them as much as we can and understand their side of the story. We expect miracles from doctors and want to extract from them till their last drop, which is insensitive on our part. We must at least acknowledge their hard work and give them the respect they deserve, which, unfortunately, we often don’t do. For instance, beating up doctors by relatives of patients is a common occurrence in the country, which is shameful. Doctors have often sought security from the Government due to the ire of the people they by default invite. They are not as highly paid in Government facilities as some officials in other departments, and the parity must be maintained because doctors directly save our lives in emergencies and they deserve more. In COVID, we all saw how much stress and risk the doctors had to go through. Yet they did so persistently, without complaint or expectations. They upheld the nobility of the job and made a name for themselves as well as the country. Managing patients in such a huge and diverse country like India – whose hot, sultry, and tropical climate makes its population prone to myriad infections so typical of these parts of the world – is a Herculean task in any case. Our Government hospital Opds are always full to the brim. In catastrophic situations, the general problems get compounded many times and that poses a great challenge to the extant facilities.

 

Herein comes in the picture the skill, maturity, tenacity, and intelligence of the doctor. The better they are disposed to keep their mind cool in such trying circumstances, the better they will be able to manage the toughest of situations. Here is where the greatest qualities of a doctor come into play. The weak-minded would falter but our doctors stood their ground when their hospitals were being deluged with COVID patients and they fought till the end like passionate warriors on a bold mission, despite the handicaps they were wrought with. Here is where they deserve the commendation. Despite death staring at their face, they didn’t balk or waver a bit and stood with their patients unflinchingly. They didn’t expect any rewards for it. It was plain human concern that was their driving force and this sets an example for a society where we all do most things, not out of empathy or responsibility, but only for petty gains, we derive from such actions.

 

It is time we as individuals paid back what we owe to the doctors, if not anything, at least by our right actions like COVID-appropriate behaviour in public. But side by side, it is also important for the Government to ensure their better safety and work atmosphere so that the talent pool is better tapped for the good health of the nation. If we neglect or disparage our doctors whenever opportunity offers us a window and only remember them when we are in trouble, this will do no good to us or our society and country. By the way, there are rotten apples in every basket that tend to tarnish the image of the profession, and there are doctors too, who try to fleece people by adopting corrupt means. But despite those sporadic blots, overall as a fraternity, doctors still are our best saviours and caregivers. We cannot and must not take them for granted.