SHIMLA: Himachal’s healthcare system today stands at a delicate crossroads. The anger is threatening to overpower empathy. Confrontation is fast replacing 'Samvaad' and healthy conversations inside government hospitals not only in Himachal Pradesh but also across India.
More often than not, viral videos storm social media. As there is no law to make them accountable for their baser instinct for their virality, such viral uploaders have become more satanic than ever before, spreading blatant lies spreading and circulating hatred, in which truth is a real casualty.
The ongoing stand-off arising from the IGMC incident, the December 22 patient- doctor scuffle, has already caused enough damage. Allowing it to fester further will only deepen mistrust between doctors and patients — a relationship that forms the backbone of public healthcare.
This is not the time for knee-jerk actions or rigid positions. This is the time for leadership, wisdom and reconciliation.
Punitive decisions taken in moments of heightened emotion rarely deliver justice. They only widen fault lines and divide between patients and doctors.
The present confrontation, if prolonged, will leave no real winner. Doctors will feel increasingly insecure, patients more alienated, and the common citizen — who depends entirely on government hospitals — will pay the highest price.
The Chief Minister must step in without delay to initiate rapprochement. Bringing both sides together, restoring calm, and facilitating dialogue is the need of the hour.
A truce built on mutual acknowledgment of mistakes committed in the heat of the moment will serve public interest far better than prolonged hostility.
The state cannot afford a breakdown of trust in its hospitals. If doctors begin to practise under fear and patients approach hospitals with suspicion, the very purpose of public healthcare collapses. Escalation only benefits vested interests that thrive on chaos, not solutions.
Equally important is the urgent need for systemic correction. Clear protocols for patients and attendants, transparent communication mechanisms, strengthened hospital security, and public awareness inside OPDs, wards and emergency units are long overdue. These are preventive measures that protect both caregivers and those seeking care.
At the heart of this crisis are two human beings who reacted under sudden emotional stress. Turning a human conflict into a prolonged administrative and legal battle will only harden positions and scar institutions.
Himachal has always shown maturity in moments of strain. The state’s leadership must now act fast to cool tempers, undo avoidable damage, and reaffirm that government hospitals remain spaces of care, dignity and trust.
SAMDCOT, RDA,HMOA, all doctors' associations, along with health authorities and local MLAs must come on board for a healthy resolution of this issue.
Wisdom must prevail over wrath. Dialogue must defeat discord. Humanity must win.
Readers Responses:
Point is who is an aggressor?
Educated Doctor or ailing young man. Detailed inquiry was the best way to finish this stand off.
Hasty decision at govt level erodes disciplinary justice,which must be based upon equity, adhering to the principles of natural justice,that is, a fair & reasonable opportunity of being heard to both the parties as they have the right to have an informed decision from the govt and not to bury the dust under carpet in a slip shod manner.
This is a complete failure of govt on administrative side.
: Prem Pal Ranta, ex Judge, District and Sessions Court
