AN IMA study has revealed that one-third of its respondent doctors, majority of them being women, felt unsafe” or “very unsafe” during their night shifts, so much so that some even felt the need to start carrying weapons for self-defence. A duty room was not available to 45 per cent of respondents during night shifts, found the online survey undertaken by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) to evaluate safety concerns during night shifts among doctors in the backdrop of recent alleged rape and murder of a trainee woman doctor at the state-run RG Kar Medical College and Hospital in Kolkata. With 3,885 individual responses, it is the largest study from India on this topic, the IMA claimed. The survey findings, compiled by Dr Rajeev Jayadevan, Chairman, Research Cell, Kerala State IMA, and his team, have been accepted for publication in IMA’s Kerala Medical Journal October 2024 issue. The respondents were from over 22 States with 85 per cent of them being under 35 years while 61 per cent were interns or postgraduate trainees. Women constituted 63 per cent, aligning with the gender ratio in some MBBS courses.

 

“Several doctors reported feeling unsafe (24.1 per cent) or very unsafe (11.4 per cent), totalling one-third of the respondents. The proportion of those feeling unsafe was higher among women,” the survey findings showed. Doctors of age 20-30 years had the lowest sense of safety and this group largely consists of interns and postgraduates. A duty room was not available to 45 per cent of respondents during night shifts. Those with access to a duty room had a greater sense of safety. The survey found that duty rooms were often inadequate due to overcrowding, lack of privacy and missing locks, forcing doctors to find alternative rest areas and one-third of available duty rooms did not have an attached bathroom. “In more than half the instances (53 per cent), duty room was located far from the ward/casualty area,” the findings stated. “Nearly one-thirds of the available duty rooms did not have an attached bathroom,” it said.