New Delhi: One third of doctors felt unsafe during night shifts in both government and private hospitals while duty room was not available to a whopping 45 percent of medical professionals, according to a survey done by the Indian Medical Association (IMA). The survey comes in the backdrop of nationwide protests and a service shutdown by doctors’ organisations demanding improved workplace safety following the rape-murder of a 31-year-old trainee doctor during night duty at Kolkata’s R.G.
Kar Hospital. Conducted by the IMA’s Kerala unit this month, the survey evaluated responses by 3,885 doctors—both from public and private health facilities—from 22 states and Union Territories. Nearly 80 percent of those surveyed were junior doctors, who are mostly on night duties in both government and private hospitals.
ThePrint has a copy of the survey report, which has been accepted for publication in the IMA’s Kerala Medical Journal in October. The report mentions that 24.1 percent of doctors reported feeling ‘unsafe’ and another 11.
4 percent ‘very unsafe’, totalling one-third of the respondents. The proportion of those feeling unsafe was higher among women, it adds. Also, a duty room was not available to 45 percent of respondents during night shifts, while those with access to a duty room had a greater sense of safety.
Duty rooms were often inadequate due to overcrowding, lack of privacy and missing locks, forcing doctors to find alternative rest areas. “Doctors acr.