Violence against healthcare providers.

Byline: DR. EHSAN UR REHMAN - Hyderabad

The corona pandemic has created havoc all over the country. The government, and some social workers are trying their best to deal with this calamity, but on top of all are healthcare providers. At least 50 doctors have lost their lives, almost half the doctors working in tertiary care hospitals have become COVID-positive. They are treating patients with limited protective gear. Freshly-graduated doctors faced corona patients on the first day of their career and many became COVID-positive.

Many non-medical professions were given a special corona allowance. When it came to the doctors however, criteria were devised and only those doctors were given allowance who were working in isolation wards. Whereas the truth is, every doctor has to face COVID patients in their daily practice, whether their duty is in the surgery ward, the medicine ward or even the eye ward. Many of our colleagues lost their lives, many doctors who suffered from corona couldn't even get beds in government hospitals. They were either forced to get treatment from private setups, spending a large amount of money or to remain in their houses. But we didn't let such injustice lower our spirit of serving the nation. We put our needs and rights aside for the betterment of the community in this time of crisis.

Unfortunately, some incidents occurred recently, occurrences that cannot be tolerated anymore. If some patient is unhappy, they start misbehaving, even with female doctors. They verbally and physically abuse the doctors on duty, record videos without their consent and post those videos on social media, always blaming the doctors for negligence.

There is another conspiracy among the public, that if someone dies of...