Doctors to get lessons in patient connect

RANCHI: The state health, medical education and family welfare department on Friday announced its plan to run a behavioural course for students in government-run medical colleges in collaboration with non-profit organisations.
Department principal secretary Nidhi Khare said, "We are introducing respectful treatment as part of the curriculum for interns working at Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (Rims).This will be later extended to all state-run medical colleges." She added, "Students will undergo training programmes conducted by specialised non-profit organizations that are working with people from different communities and economic backgrounds to enhance social skills."
The non-profit organisations to be engaged by the government have veteran doctors and medical experts.
After Rims, the department will run the course at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Medical College and Hospital (Jamshedpur) and Pataliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH).
Khare said students will be taught how to behave with patients and their relatives. She added, "The students must show some empathy towards patients."
Rims acting director R K Srivastava said as part of the programme, the students will be sent to rural areas to understand the culture and problems of people they serve.
Department sources said the programme is also aimed at improving the image of medical colleges, which often draws criticism because of frequent fights between hospital employees and patients and their families.
In February, more than 700 junior doctors at Rims went on an indefinite strike after some of them had a fight with the relatives of a patient. This led to a complete halt of work at the out-patient department of the 1,100-bed hospital.
Prior to this, in 2015, at least 30 junior doctors and 26 interns of PMCH (Dhanbad) locked the main entrance of the hospital for five hours after the family of a patient allegedly misbehaved with hospital employees. This caused hardships to patients and their families, especially from far away places.
To improve health services, the Raghubar Das government has at the same time initiated a series of programmes. It has offered monetary incentives to doctors and experts who are ready to serve in rural hospitals .