The Rise of Medical Protests Around the World

Image by Heather Mount

It’s been 45 minutes since you checked in with the receptionist at your medical office. You’re starting to get impatient as you wait for your doctor to call you back. After another 15 minutes, the receptionist tells you your doctor has walked out of the office on strike. How do you react?

The idea of your doctor just walking out seems shocking, but what if you knew that the doctor had been poorly paid, overworked, and underappreciated? Well, that is the case for a lot of medical professionals around the world. 

Across the globe, nations are being rattled by the mass protest from medical professionals demanding for better treatment in their industry. From doctors to nurses, seasoned specialists to junior medical staff; a significant portion of medical personnel are refusing to work due to workplace mistreatment, inadequate pay, toxic workplaces, and overall burnout. 

This issue is not just in the United States – it is actively transcending borders and affecting the global community. Earlier this year in January, medical personnel and junior doctors in the United Kingdom conducted the longest strike in the National Health Service’s history. The group is demanding higher wages, insisting on an increase of at least 35%.

The UK also experienced a crisis of living once they went through with Brexit and removed themselves from the European Union. Their doctors still remained underpaid. The professionals who serve to protect and treat the public could barely make ends meet in their personal lives due to poor salaries. 50,000 junior doctors banded together to notify the public that they were being mistreated and overworked.

“There have been numerous surveys over the past several years that ask clinicians why they leave. The top 3 answers are almost always: overworked/low nurse:patient ratios, bad managers, and lack of professional development. So to better retain your clinical talent – I’d recommend focusing on automating low-value tasks, raising nurse:patient ratios, investing more in management training, and providing opportunities for professional development and advancement,” explains Sarah M. Worthy, CEO of DoorSpace.

In the Indian town of Kolkata, the reality of a doctor’s life is more than just a salary or long hours; it is a matter of life or death. Recently, a 31 year-old female doctor was raped and murdered in the hospital she worked in at the time. Police have arrested a hospital volunteer in relation to the crime.

A young woman, full of talent and a desire to execute the oath of service to humanity lost her life trying to do just that. Lacking security measures and improper protection for doctors hold a large sum of blame for this young doctor’s death.

Worthy weighs in to the discussion about the young doctor in Kolkata’s death: “The recent rape and murder of a physician in India by a volunteer police officer at the hospital is a chilling reminder of the growing violence against healthcare workers. It’s a tragic wake-up call for the entire healthcare community: we need to prioritize the safety and well-being of our colleagues. Violence against healthcare workers has risen over 63% in the last few years, and this number is based on grossly underreported cases.The safety of healthcare workers should never be compromised, and when doctors and nurses don’t feel safe – they aren’t able to do their best for their patients. We all lose when violence becomes an epidemic and healthcare leaders need to make sustainable investments in building safer workplace environments.” 

These global protests underscore a common theme: medical professionals feel neglected, overworked, and undervalued. Despite being the backbone of the medical industry, medical personnel are expected to carry a burden that, for many, is simply too much to bear. The healthcare system in any country cannot stand without these professionals. Let’s start treating them like we know that.