Violence against doctors reared its ugly head once again recently. Readers must be aware of the many problems and altercations that have been reported at medical facilities. At those times, patients’ relatives had roughed up doctors and medical staffers, especially if the patient had passed away during treatment. We have always advocated dialogue and stressed that violence has led to a fraying of the patient-doctor relationship. The system needed to be overhauled as it is indeed shameful if our medicos work in an atmosphere of fear and need security.

This time, a hospital head was grievously injured after a group of people allegedly attacked him and vandalised the medical facility in Maharashtra’s Palghar district following a dispute over the bill of a patient, police have stated about a recent incident.