Dear Editor,The article by Patil et al.[1] is an excellent attempt to highlight the rising incidence of violence against doctors despite COVID-19 pandemic.[2] The remedial solutions suggested by the authors include administrative, political, hospital-based and public-education initiatives. Most of these initiatives are long-term measures requiring administrative will, financial bearings, and infrastructural enhancement. Another important solution mentioned is soft skill training for young doctors. A few easily enforced directives in this regard can include the followingThere are Attitude ethics and communication (AETCOM) modules, which have become a necessary part of MBBS undergraduate medical education in Indian curriculum. These modules start from the first year helping students understand what it means to be a doctor and a patient, and progress up to final year and even internship on dealing with patients, breaking bad news and taking consent. It is the need of the hour to strictly enforce these AETCOM modules in the training of medical students to ensure improved communication skills of the future.[3]COVID-19 pandemic has led to overburdened healthcare resources to such an extent that many patients have been treated at home. Thus, it has become imperative to educate the public regarding monitoring vital signs and have awareness regarding when to consult hospitals. These Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities must be integrated to spread awareness regarding the importance of a healthy doctor–patient relationship.Lastly, the most important step that the administration and medical fraternity need to undertake, not discussed by Patil et al., is creating a national record[4] of all such events of violence and seeking judicial and legal aid in all these events. Rampant violence events are often only reported in media with no timely action for the same. This delays justice and promotes similar attacks in future.It is high time that the public, administration, and the media contribute to halt these attacks of violence against doctors to ensure the safety of these real-life warriors of health.
Ethical approval
The submitted work does not contain human subjects’ research and is composed of review of the available literature and suggestions to improve clinical practice. The authors certify that there are no ethical conflicts that would preclude its publication.
Financial support and sponsorship
We certify that we have received no funding for the creation of this work and have no disclosure of other sources of funding that would conflict with the published work.
Conflicts of interest
We certify that we have no primary or secondary competing interests or conflicts of interest in submitting and publishing this work.