KEM Hospital plans to make its staff Stress-free'

Mumbai: The civic-run KEM hospital is planning to launch a special programme called stress-free, related to which, the hospital has already started a medical humanity department to teach doctors how to communicate with patients.

It is also an effective measure to reduce stress on healthcare staff as doctors, nurses and other staff is always under stress.

The hospital’s medical humanity department is training budding doctors and medical students; the aim is to build a healthy relationship between doctors and patients. Nowadays, assaults on doctors in the state are on the rise. One of the core issues behind these attacks is the communication gap between patients, relatives and doctors.

According to patients and their kin, doctors don’t talk to them properly and behave very rudely. Due to this, the doctor-patient relationship gets hampered. Over the past few years, the faith reposed by patients in doctors has been shaken.

Considering communication an important aspect, the KEM hospital has started a medical humanity department to teach doctors how to communicate with patients.

Dr Lopa Mehta, head of the medical humanity department, said, “Interns and resident doctors usually have issues with communication like how to deal with medical emergencies. They work hard without eating and sleeping. However, stress sometimes leads to miscommunication and a careless word here or there can aggravate the situation.”

Since the inception of the department, over 10,000 doctors have been trained in communication skills.

“It is the first time that the MBBS syllabus has been introduced with a subject called doctor-patient communication. It will surely help doctors to understand the circumstances and how to communicate with patients. A doctor can be good, but if he doesn’t know how to communicate, it is of no use,” he added.