kolkata covid has failed to break once and for all the chain of defensive treatment by doctors and hospitals as more and more and often unnecessary diagnostic tests continue to be performed to guard against rising doctorpatient skirmishesrepeated incidents of violence had forced doctors to resort to defensive treatment instead of going by gut feeling or clinical examinations which could hasten diagnosis and recovery said a section of doctors calling for measures to strengthen patientdoctor relationship such defensive treatment has resulted in avoidable diagnostic tests being prescribed and a conservative line of treatment involving prolonged hospital stays which push up expenses these doctors pointed outthe issues came up at an interaction between senior medics legal experts and multiple other stakeholders at cmri hospital earlier this month patientdoctor skirmishes have reduced significantly since the formation of the wb clinical establishment regulatory commission in 2017 which has given patients a place to air grievances but doctors who frown upon too much defensive treatment also said that the relationship between doctors and patients remained weak and measures were needed to strengthen it the ultimate goal they added was to prevent unnecessarily defensive treatment which could prove detrimental to patients intereststhey said that the pandemic helped improve the relationship as the role of doctors was generally more appreciated then but communication with patients was weak and the situation could revert to prepandemic stage if steps were not taken soon unfortunately doctors often fail to communicate effectively with patients as they are not trained to do it said raja dhar the director of pulmonology at cmri who moderated the sessionmost young doctors still scared to take a chanceraja dhar director of pulmonology at cmri who moderated the session said the medicine curriculum does not include a module on effective communication which would have helped this creates a barrier between them and patients even as the latter often take advantage of this and blackmail medics by levelling false charges while the pandemic helped bridge the gap it was temporary and loopholes persist we must work to plug themdhar said most young doctors prescribe a battery of tests to play it safe rather than go by their instincts they are still scared to take a chance which is not desirable dhar addedipgmer professor diptendra sarkar said having enough information about your patient and giving them out to the family is key to building trust also it is important to show empathy patients on the other hand should accept the doctors version unless there is strong reason to suspect the treatment said sarkarsarkar however added that incidents of violence didnt justify defensive treatment there is a clear guideline for most treatment and our job is to follow that sticking to medical ethics it is up to the hospital and the government to protect us quality of treatment should not suffer due to the threat of violence he saidveteran oncologist subir ganguly agreed doctors should go through patientinterface training also we need our leaders to convince the