Doctors will burn rubber to spread awareness

With a mission to spread awareness about growing cases of diabetes and assaults on doctors by patients’ relatives, 100 doctors will go on a motorcycle-tour-cum-awareness campaign with flags on December 19 under their new initiative — ‘Mard and Harley Davidson bikers: Save the docs’.

The 100 bikers will start their journey from JJ Hospital and end it at Sion Hospital while passing by Nair Hospital and KEM Hospital. Then they will return via the same route. Also during the tour, doctors will hold blood sugar level check ups at six places at least between JJ and Sion Hospital.

“We will stop at these places and talk about how one simple blood test can detect diabetes and control it. A new study has shown that one in every two 45-year-olds will have prediabetes; 30 per cent of healthy 45-year-olds will have full-brown diabetes and 9 per cent ill have to take insulin, so we need to create more awareness,” said Dr Sagar Mundada, president of central Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors (Mard).

The tour, which will add some glamour quotient to the campaign, will be lead by Dr Rohan Sequeira, a physician and Harley Davidson biker. The purpose of the drive is to bridge the trust gap between patients and doctors.

“The integrity and sacredness of the doctor-patient relationship has to come back and these assaults have to stop. It is the biggest concern now that a doctor cannot always save patients. The unprecedented increase in the patient’s relatives’ expectations is also a problem,” said Dr Mundada.

So far, 31 cases of doctors getting attacked by patients’ relatives have been recorded in government hospitals this year.

Mard will hold a meeting with Vinod Tawde, medical education minister, regarding a review of their demands as none has been completed in the given time frame. They will also discuss security audits.