Insensitive care unit: Breaking medical codes of conduct

Last week, at the Lata Mangeshkar Hospital in Nagpur, a girl suffering from Harlequin-type ichthyosis — a rare, congenital skin disorder in which the skin becomes hard and scaly — was born.

A doctor was photographed holding the baby and smiling for the camera. The girl eventually succumbed to complications, as is common with this affliction, but the doctor has been severely criticised for being insensitive and breaking medical codes of conduct.

Last year, doctors at the LLRM hospital in Meerut put up a poster to distinguish an HIV positive woman from others in a gynaecology ward. More such examples appear in the media where doctors are happy to pose with patients on whom they have performed a life-saving surgery. Have doctors become insensitive to their patients’ dignity?

The Nagpur doc’s photograph was in violation of standard medical procedures, says Dr R.T.S. Naik, a senior neurosurgery consultant at Apollo Hospitals.

“The medical fraternity should treat the patient as an individual and the individual’s privacy be protected. Rare cases can be presented to journals and a medical body should be formed to should scrutinise and approve news before releasing it to the public,” he says.

Another doctor, who wished to remain anonymous — as she didn’t want to say anything on record against his colleagues — defended the Nagpur doctor: “It could have also been that this was one of many photographs taken and the doctor wasn’t purposely smiling — someone might have said something at the time. No doctor would laugh or smile at any patient no matter what.”

Dr Mahesh Joshi, CEO of Apollo’s Home Healthcare, says that sensitivity training is lacking and most doctors only learn about such soft skills while on the job — something that needs to be fixed.

“This is one of the biggest missing pieces in our medical training in India, firstly because we’re training in situations where there’s a huge shortage of doctors. Secondly, those who are trained in institutes like AIIMS, there’s too much of workload so you don’t really have the patience to empathise with patients,” says Dr Mahesh.

Dr Mohana Vamsy, Chief Surgical Oncologist, Omega Hospitals, adds, “It’s unfortunate that because of a few doctors our whole fraternity is looked down upon. Agreed, doctors have to be sensitive to the patients, especially when patients and families are emotionally disturbed. Ninety-nine per cent of doctors don’t behave in such a way. Probably the Meerut doctor did not know how to handle the situation.”