Medical books, patient care and routine ward work aside, doctors at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are also packing in self-defence classes, which started this Monday, “to protect ourselves from attacks by angry relatives of patients who are frustrated with the infrastructure and with infrastructure lapse in hospitals”.
Administration nod
Speaking about the initiative, which also has approval of the hospital administration, AIIMS Resident Doctors’ Association (RDA) president Vijay Kumar said: “Doctors and other medical staff members have been facing violence and there isn’t much we have been able to do about it so far. This is one of the options we’re looking at actively now. The class is open for all, including MMBS students, scientist, teachers and paramedics. The programme is offered at a cost of ₹1,000 per person for a batch of 20.”
He said the trainers are black belt holders in martial arts, including taekwondo.
“At AIIMS, two black belt holders are imparting self-defence skills to candidates, as we firmly believe that prevention is better than cure. There’s no point waiting and criticising lax security at the hospital or seeking justice once an attack has taken place,” Dr. Kumar added.
Other hospitals
AIIMS isn’t the only medical institution that has such classes for its staff. Self-defence classes were also organised at Lok Nayak Hospital, Maulana Azad Medical College and Lady Hardinge Medical College.
Maulana Azad Medical College RDA president Yugal Karkhur said the Delhi Police had in their training capsule taught them to “defend themselves from aggressive attendants or evacuate safely in case of a dangerous situation”.
Delhi Police classes
The Delhi Police had organised a self-defence training programme at Lok Nayak Hospital from April 5 to April 17 following a request by the hospital’s Chief Medical Officer.
“In the past year, there have been four instances each of violence against doctors at AIIMS and Ambedkar hospital, and three each at Lok Nayak, Guru Tegh Bahadur and Acharya Bhikshu hospitals. Our complaints and requests to increase security haven’t yielded results,” said Pankaj Solanki, who heads the federation of RDAs of all Delhi hospitals.
