Letter to the Editor - Doctor Bashing and Why The Indian Medical Profession Must Evolve

Sir,
I read with interest the comments by Dr. Pandya on the harassment and violence inflicted on doctors in India.¹ Indeed, in one of the recent issues of the British Medical Journal a Pakistani doctor reports similar events in his country.² It is clear even in Britain that doctors no longer have the kudos that their predecessors commanded implicitly as part of their professional role. Certainly in the UK this loss of faith in the medical profession has resulted from large malpractice scandals incriminating senior doctors during the last decade. We saw over the nineties the Bristol paediatric cardiac surgery scandal, the Alder Hey revelations, the Dr Shipman affair, and an array of ignominious ends to otherwise admirable careers. It was undoubtedly the case in these instances that patient care had been substandard. The General Medical Council responded briskly by establishing new mechanisms to monitor the performance of consultants (who hitherto had worked with relative impunity) and by forming bodies such as the National Institute of Clinical Excellence to audit clinical practices. The British people also changed their view of doctors, and there is presently a rising trend of complaints against health professionals and the system of the National Health Service (NHS). For the time being in Britain we are only more aware of the medicolegal aspects of our practice (so that clinical care is improving), but it may be that soon we will work in the litigious culture found in North America.