"No other professional capable of rendering services as valuable as those offered by Doctors": Chief Justice NV Ramana
Hon’ble Chief Justice of India on Thursday while emphasising on the role played and calling doctors “God” and “Goddesses” condemned the brutal attack on them while on duty.
“It is saddening that our doctors are being brutally attacked while on duty. Why is it that the medical professionals are at the receiving end for someone else’s failure?,” CJI said.
Addressing the medical fraternity on Doctors' Day and launching the ''Defeat Diabetes Campaign'' initiated by the Research Society for the Study of Diabetes (RSSDI), the CJI said there was a need to start an awareness movement like the anti-tobacco and pulse polio campaigns and the state has to step in in a big way.
In his speech while focusing on the vacuum created by lack of awareness which lead to larger complications which are invariably filled by myths he emphasised on the importance of evolving methods that suit Indian context.
“Myths such as ‘those who eat more sugar get sugar disease’; ‘women are immune to diabetes’; ‘only obese people get diabetes’; ‘diabetes is contagious’ etc. Where there is room for myths, there is room for quackery and quackery is the biggest disease that is affecting India. Where the awareness ends, the quackery begins. Due to lack of awareness and resources, people tend to fall for ‘easy solutions’ offered by the quacks,” Justice Ramana added.
While emphasising on the fact that tradition of family doctors was vanishing, CJI pointed out to the issues such as insufficient number of medical professionals, infrastructure, medicines, outdated technologies, and government not giving priority to the medical sector and CJI said that the same were issues of immediate concern.
“Why is it that the profiteering by corporates and investors is being blamed on doctors? It is saddening to see that a good and qualified doctor can not start a decent hospital of his own and survive. Even after 8 to 9 years of rigorous learning, doctors struggle to get decent salaries,” Chief Justice NV Ramana further added.
“This decade is defined by the healing touch and the sacrifices made by our doctors. While the world is still reeling under the devastating impact of the pandemic, our doctors have been tirelessly and selflessly fighting against the deadly pandemic. The Indian Medical Association’s data suggests that more than 798 doctors have lost their lives in the deadly second wave. My heartfelt prayers and sympathies go out to the families of those medical professionals and healthcare workers who have lost their lives to the COVID-19 pandemic,” CJI said.
He also said that we could only sincerely greet doctors on July 1 every year if the medical bodies and concerned agencies in the government have to put their heads together to address these concerns.
The CJI also put forth moving thoughts penned by one Lizzy, a young medical professional from the United States, which stated, "Watching you suffer is destroying my heart, We healthcare workers are falling apart."
"When I get dressed for work, it's not just a job, when I lose another patient, it's in my car that I sob. You see I am human, I bleed just like you, and with each death that I witness, a part of me dies too," he quoted Dr. Lizzy.
Doctors' Day is observed in honour of noted doctor and former West Bengal chief minister Bidhan Chandra Roy, whose birth and death anniversaries fall on July 1.