A noticeable increase in violence against doctors in Kerala in recent years has led a significant number of them to contemplate relocating abroad.
Although almost half of the incidents were reported to the authorities, preventive steps were taken in only a few cases, says a study published in Cureus, a peer-reviewed, open access medical journal, on November 16. The authors are Rahul Kunnath, Nithin Suresh, and Suvarna Soman, all attached to the Department of Community Medicine, Government Medical College, Kozhikode, and Jayakrishnan Thayyil of the Department of Community Medicine, KMCT Medical College, Mukkom, Kozhikode. It was conducted between July 2021 and September 2023.
The study involved modern medicine doctors holding a minimum MBBS degree practising in the State. A total of 2,400 doctors across all the 14 districts were contacted. Among the 1,948 respondents, 65.6% experienced violence, predominantly verbal abuse (89.9%), and intimidation by gestures (32.7%). Most incidents happened during the day (84.7%), with 32% occurring after duty hours. Casualty triage had the highest incidence (57.5%), followed by outpatient departments (33.6%). Relatives or caregivers were the foremost perpetrators in 81.5% of the cases. Although 48.6% of the incidents were reported to authorities, only 13.5% had any sort of preventive steps taken. A significant 76.7% of doctors contemplated relocating abroad.
