Easy to judge, hard to empathise

For the past few weeks, the medical profession and professionals have been the talk of the town. This is not the first time this has happened either. Every now and then you hear about malpractice and negligence on the part of the physician, about how they made an error that had to be paid for with human lives. Having spent a good bit of time interacting with doctors around the country, I have to admit that a lot of the grievances are valid and should be addressed in some manner. What makes the recent incidents particularly unfortunate though is how either the doctors or the patients have ended up assaulting the other party. Not too long ago there were reports of incidents where some doctors decided to roughhouse the relative of a deceased patient because they were probing about the quality of service in the Intensive Care Unit. In more recent incidents, the doctors themselves have been on the receiving end of assault, apparently for not doing their job properly. In response, they have gone on strike, causing further chaos in an already chaotic situation.

Before I go on any further, allow me to concede that there is no clear dichotomy in an issue like this. It's not black and white, true or false, right or wrong. Both doctors and patients have a lot of thinking to do, but all of us as members of society must also analyze the issue with an objective mind. For every problem, one can either hack away at the peripheral symptoms or do something that attacks the very root of the problem. Our social consensus on doctors being irresponsible, and their defence of being overworked and underappreciated, has gone on long enough that now we must sit up and look at the root causes.

First of all, allow me to play the devil's advocate for a bit. We live in a country and a time where almost no profession is above petty politics and a general sense of apathy. I believe it would be more than fair to say that no one does their job properly. From the police officer to the bank manager, from the customer service representative to the university teacher, nobody thinks of their work as a way to serve society and make the world a better place. Everyone is in it for the money, quick money to be even more precise. I do not mean to belittle the precious few who still pour their hearts out into their work, but a few white spots tend to escape notice when the entire picture is black as the night.

In this reality where we get short-changed at every turn, where everyone is looking for a shortcut, it seems odd that only doctors ever have to face universal criticism for not giving their best. Of course, the work of a doctor is more sensitive than that of any other profession. It still seems unfair though that doctors stand to get assaulted for not doing their duty, while traffic police get bribed for not doing their job properly and school teachers are rewarded by private tuition opportunities for not teaching in class properly.

Am I trying to justify one evil by pointing out that other forms of evil exist? No, I am simply trying to emphasize that in a society where apathy is the norm, and in fact often rewarded, it should be no surprise that everyone slowly degenerates into apathy. The doctor who has to pay exorbitant school fees and still hire private tutors for his children, the doctor who must pay a hefty bribe to get the license and registration for his car, the doctor who must focus on making money to buy privileges in this country, is bound to be a doctor who does not have enough time or energy to spare on his patients or on improving himself through continuous education.

I am also pointing out we never see any overt criticism of any other profession to the same extent that we see it for the medical profession. I am pointing out that it is almost unthinkable that police officers fail in executing their duties and the crowd take them to task for it. Why is that? It is because they have the assault weapons? Now that would be a rather cynical view – how people are only interested in exercising their rights when the other party cannot take any steps to defend themselves or strike back.

I am not categorically defending doctors. In a lot of cases their performance does leave much to be desired. I am simply urging everyone, that before we point fingers and assign blame, maybe we could try to understand their side of the story as well. Maybe we can try to understand the realities where each doctor is overworked to the point of nervous breakdown, while people far less qualified, with far less demands on their time, are cruising through life by doing the bare minimum. If we understood their side, maybe we could do our part to make their job easier, to make them feel more appreciated. Even the most cynical one among us knows that feeling of deep gratitude when a loved one is treated back to health by a doctor. If a little appreciation and cooperation would help more doctors perform at such levels, isn't that something we should make a commitment towards doing?

Maybe due to my day job, I tend to see our education system as the root cause of all our social problems. In a country where the medical admission test, and a large part of the medical curriculum, involves learning facts and figures and spends little time on the philosophy of the profession, maybe a lack of purpose among the professionals is not very surprising. Maybe instead of reacting to the current crisis with indignation and then eventually forgetting about it, our time and energy would be better spent proactively looking at how our medical schools could do a better job of impressing upon our future doctors what their responsibilities are and how they can provide better service to society.

Lastly, I would like to address a few words to any doctors that might be reading this. We can only imagine how tough it must be, to work such long hours, dealing with so much stress and still feeling like no one understands the sacrifices you make. It must be hard to see people with lesser qualifications enjoying more material possessions and a cushier lifestyle. However, it is important that you remember that one chooses to become a medical professional not solely for material gains. It is supposed to be a life of service, a life where your joys are in the families whose smiles you help restore, the mother whose child you helped bring to the world, or the teenager whose father you brought back to health. Come to work for those reasons, stay at work for those reasons, and maybe you will not care so much about what the rest of the world is doing, for you will know that you play a role even the richest man in the world cannot rival – unless he too is a medical professional.

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Hammad Ali is a teacher at BRAC University.