Doctors and healthcare workers have been playing a crucial role in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic for the last one and a half years. Many have lost their lives while treating the Covid-19 patients across the world. According to the Indian Medical Association, 798 doctors died during the second wave this year and 748 doctors succumbed to Covid-19 in the first wave last year.
On National Doctors’ Day, Healthwire salutes the heroes for their selfless services amid COVID-19 pandemic and honour their contribution to society.
On this special occasion, we spoke to Dr. Anil Saxena – Executive Director, Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, to understand that has the COVID-19 pandemic changed the doctor-patient relationship forever? Here’s what he said:
“The COVID 19 pandemic has overburdened the entire healthcare ecosystem with unprecedented challenges. To overcome these challenges, we have learned new ways of treatment and adopted better safety protocols. Also, the doctor-patient relationship has gone through a significant transformation too. Before the pandemic, the doctors and patients both used to prefer physical visits. But now, teleconsultation has emerged as a very important and popular mode of interaction with care providers. The technology has ensured that geographical barriers are no more a constraint for getting opinion from the best doctors. This mode of delivering care has improved the frequency of contact between patients and specialist doctors who are often located hundreds of kilometers away. This has helped the doctor-patient relationship, maintained the continuity of medical services, and enhanced the trust between the doctors and the patients,” said Dr. Anil Saxena – Executive Director, Interventional Cardiology, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute, New Delhi.
“During the pandemic, it became common that patients keep their mobile phones in the ICU, as it was the only way for them to be in touch with their families. All these changes in the care delivery model made doctors and healthcare workers uncomfortable in the beginning. But over time, the advantages overcame initial hesitation and entire system got habituated with a new normal. Doctors have been continuously fine-tuning and improving the processes through training and learning. Patients and their families have also become more cooperative and empathetic towards the doctors, they have realized the challenges that were faced by the doctors and other healthcare workers. We believe and hope this positive change in doctor-patient relation is going to be there for a long time, even after the pandemic is gone, said,” he added.
