Varun Dhawan on violence against doctors: I don’t think doctors are overreacting; you can't harass or attack them

In an Instagram live with Orthopedist Dr Manan Vora, Varun Dhawan spoke about the incidents of violence and physical assault that have been happening against doctors across the country. Varun, in his chat with the doctor, appealed to his fans to take this issue seriously. He also spoke about the steps that hospitals can take to safeguard doctors and why grief counselling is probably the need of the hour.
‘It is unfair to attack doctors who are working day and night to treat you’
As the session began, Varun shared with his fans that while he usually does a lot of fun sessions, the recent attacks on doctors was something that he thought that he surely wanted to speak about.“It’s an extremely serious issue and we really need to create awareness on this topic. The second wave has not been easy on anyone, I’ve had at least seven family members who got COVID during this phase and it’s very stressful for the family. So, I understand when it happens but it is unfair on doctors, who are treating you, who are there to cure you day and night, to go through this,” he said.

Agreeing with Varun, Dr Vora added, “It has reached a point where doctors are wondering if their decade-long career is really worth the trouble. It’s reached a point where current medical students are wondering whether they have made the wrong decision. It’s reached a point where those preparing for medical examinations are wondering whether it is not too late to change their mind. It’s even reached a point where parents are telling their kids if they want to change their mind. It’s not something we want from our country as the youth, it’s not what we want budding doctors to be thinking, so it’s really reached a stage where we need to address the issue and tell people that it is not normal to hit doctors. It’s not normal to hit people.”
‘Nothing justifies violence’
Varun shared with the doctor and his fans that he had read about the incidents where doctors have been attacked in Delhi, Assam and across the country. “Emotions run very high when you lose a family member, but what do you think hospitals can do to safeguard doctors?" Varun asked the doctor.
“We really need to identify the issue and especially since the pandemic started, it’s created a lot of anxiety and fear among the minds of patients. And unfortunately, frontline doctors have to face the reaction of these emotions. It’s usually in the form of actions like violence and when I say violence, it is physical as well as psychological violence. It involves abuse, threat or cyber bullying so it is not something that should be taken lightly. As far as the hospitals are concerned, CCTV cameras in the emergency as well as ICUs, which many of the hospitals have implemented is really important as these are the areas where chances of this happening are most. The other is having ample security personnel but how much can one two security guards do when you have an entire mob attacking you. While doctors know about consent and documentation, I would like to talk about doctor-patient communication. I am not saying that doctors are not communicating well with patients well but I genuinely believe if the skills can be improved by the medical community and patiently explain the situation if the situation is going south. Just gradually tell them so that they have some time to process it than a sudden reaction, then it can make a really big impact. But while we need to look and introspect, we need to understand that nothing justifies violence. It should not be happening in the first place,” the doctor said.
‘We never talk about grief counselling’
Giving a reference from his family, Varun shared that he lost his maasi, who was being treated at a hospital in Chicago. “With COVID, people have post-recovery side-effects and they suddenly die. It happened with a relative of mine, my maasi, who was at a hospital in Chicago, she was there for a month, she was on the ventilator then she was off ventilator. Suddenly after 40 days, she passed away. So, there’s no way to prepare a family for this but you can’t take your grief out on a doctor because ultimately everyone is dealing with it together. We never talk about grief counselling in our country because at the moment, the medical fraternity is overworked but is there something that can help the families to deal with it better?,” asked the actor.
“We have enough psychologists and counsellors, who are a part of the process, they need to be really integrated into this. Along with this, the medical students and young doctors need to be taught grief counselling, about passing the information to a relative and the way it needs to be done. It’s just not what you say but how you say and when you say, so all these factors need to be taken into consideration,” the doctor replied.
When the doctor asked Varun his views on the topic and if he felt that doctors are overreacting, the actor shared, “I don’t think doctors are overreacting, it is unfortunate that we need to talk about this and create awareness about something like this. Woh doctor infected patients se jaake mil raha hai, apni family se nahi mil raha hai, bina break liye kaam kar rahe hain PPE kits mein and we are attacking them if we lose a loved one. It is wrong. People need to understand that it is not their fault, this disease is still new, people are understanding it. But you can’t harass doctors, you can’t attack doctors, you just can’t do that.”