Respect our healthcare workers

Today is July 1, and every year this day is observed as National Doctors’ Day to express gratitude and acknowledge the dedication and commitment of the doctors’ towards our society. The observance of the day honours legendary physician and West Bengal’s second Chief Minister, Dr. Bidhan Chandra Roy whose birth and death anniversary coincides on the same day. As I write this, 2020 is a very remarkable year for not just doctors but all our frontline workers in the medical fraternity. As the pandemic continues to rise, our doctors, nurses, carers and paramedics around the world are facing an unprecedented workload in overstretched health facilities, and with no end in sight.

In my view, the pandemic has taught us three critical things. Firstly the economic cost of physician burnout. Secondly, getting used to the new- normal which has significantly impacted everyone and doctor's life and his family also had to change. Thirdly, psychological safety should receive attention.

Physician burnout costs the United States health care industry $4.6 billion a year, a number that brings a new spotlight to an age-old problem. There are no such studies from India. For a country like India, the doctor-patient ratio is dismal.

Due to this, doctors, especially those working in the public sector are faced with significant patient load. It is not uncommon to hear a single doctor catering to 100–200 outpatients a day. Further, if the doctor is a trainee or a teacher/supervisor, they have the additional load of academics, teaching, and supervising the academics

In India, the pandemic has made most physicians and surgeons over the age of 60 take up voluntary retirement. Many ICUs don’t have enough allied health workers, which complicates the issue. Even though physician burnout is widespread, it’s difficult to put a price tag on the phenomenon in a way that medical institutions can understand.

Around the world, health-care professionals are putting their lives on the line to combat and control the pandemic. But it is important to note that some of the physicians, nurses and paramedical staff have taken major life decisions too. They are working in stressful work environments, not just because the virus is little understood, but because in most settings they are under-protected, overworked and themselves vulnerable to infection.

They are staying away from family to ensure the infection is contained and not spread. Many of them are also seeing patients pass away while on a ventilator. Clinicians at times also feel frustrated by the limitations of overstretched health systems. They moved into unfamiliar clinical areas, joined new rotas at short notice, and covered gaps created by the pandemic. They have left other roles in research and education to help with the clinical efforts, increased working hours. Teaching programmes and learning opportunities are yet to restart.

One of the notable trends of the new- normal scenario has been that your “Doctor is online”. As a neonatologist, I notice, parents no longer had to take time off work or find transportation to get their children to an appointment. “I’m asking questions and answering questions,” seeing kids in their homes and with their families. “It feels like a very complete visit. The pandemic taught us that teleconsultations are the new normal and.

The pandemic also underscores the urgent need to strengthen the global health workforce. A new report by WHO titled “The State of the World’s Nursing 2020” calls for urgent investment in nurses. Nurses account for more than half of all the world’s health workers, providing vital services throughout the health system.

It is important to understand that healthcare workers are not just treating a flood of critically ill patients during the pandemic at the same time they are risking their own health, witnessing higher rates of death and experiencing acute stress that could lead to mental health issues. First, although prior to this pandemic there were undoubtedly situations where clinicians could be at risk of being physically harmed by their patients. The pandemic changes this all as GPs and nurses whether working in the community or in hospitals, run a significant risk of catching the virus from their patients.

(The writer is the Founder Chairman and Neonatologist, Cloudnine Group of Hospitals, Bengaluru)