Workplace Violence Against Doctors: A Growing Crisis in India

Workplace violence (WPV) against healthcare professionals remains a pressing occupational hazard for doctors in India. A recent cross-sectional survey found that more than 60.9% of doctors experienced violence in the past year, a figure that exceeds global averages. Nature and Patterns of Violence The survey, which collected responses from 658 doctors across government and private institutions, highlighted verbal abuse as the most common form of violence, affecting 96% of those who reported WPV.

Physical assaults were less frequent but not negligible, affecting nearly 4% of respondents. The median number of episodes per affected doctor was five over the past 12 months, underscoring how recurrent these incidents have become. The violence most commonly occurred in operation theatres (88.8%), intensive care units (85.3%), and emergency departments (68.6%), followed by outpatient areas.…