CJI: Dehumanisation of healthcare leads to patient-doctor conflicts

NEW DELHI: Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud on Sunday said patient-doctor violent conflicts often stem from inadequacy of health facilities in the country, spiralling treatment costs and dehumanisation of healthcare that shakes the citizens' foundational belief that doctors are infallible service providers.

"The simmering anger of the public against injustice in healthcare is aggravated when either a patient treats the doctor as an infallible service provider, who mechanically provides services, or when a doctor looks at a patient merely as a medical issue which needs to be solved," he said.

Delivering the 19th Sir Ganga Ram Oration on 'A Prescription for Justice: Quest for Fairness and Equity in Healthcare', Justice Chandrachud said, "Dehumanisation of healthcare has often resulted in violent confrontations between the citizens and hospitals, with medical professionals being caught in the crossfire. This puts the lives of medical professionals at risk, and creates a hostile environment for them to work in. This violence ends up hampering the delivery of medical services, which can have serious consequences for patients."

He narrated the humble beginning of Sir Ganga Ram Hospital with a 50-bed facility in the 1950s to become a 600-bed hospital now with facilities for free treatment to poor patients and said the continuing inequalities in access to healthcare system dents the two cardinal principles governing equity and justice in healthcare. "We as a society need to counteract structural and policy constraints which prevent access to good-quality healthcare in order to achieve healthcare justice," the CJI said.

He said doctors are often called upon as expert medical witnesses in criminal trials and spend a considerable time awaiting their turn in the crowded trial courts hampering their professional duties.