Manhandling of doctors and vandalising of public or private hospital property by relatives and friends of some of the patients on charges of alleged criminal negligence by doctors have become a convenient form of meting out punishment, particularly in recent times. The latest such incident happened at Kanti Children’s Hospital on Monday when an eight-month-old infant died while undergoing treatment there. The hospital administration decided to shut down the Out Patient Department in protest against the alleged maltreatment. The result: the general public suffered.

It is not possible to say, without a probe, whether the child died from negligence or not. It is but natural for the relatives to feel a sense of outrage if a patient dies for lack of reasonable medical care. From the doctors’ viewpoint, if the patient’s relatives take law into their own hands, it becomes impossible for them to discharge their duties properly. In most cases, relatives take recourse to violence and vandalism when they are convinced that their patient’s case was spoiled beyond repair and when they do not think the existing legal process can do justice, and speedily at that. But sometimes even innocent doctors become victims of misplaced ire. Unless an effective justice mechanism is put in place to pin down responsibility and punish the guilty, the cases of negligence, violence and vandalism by patients’ relatives and doctors’ closure of essential services are bound to continue. The urgent need, therefore, is to end this vicious cycle and make things fair to all sides.