Ranjan Das Gupta examines the neglected state of public relations in India’s healthcare system, highlighting systemic gaps, doctor-patient disconnect, rising violence, and the urgent need for ethical, humane, and communicative medical practices nationwide today.

Public Relations In Healthcare Neglected Today: In 1958 late Dr. B C Roy stated that public relations in healthcare are the most important form of communication. Its importance in India is least existing. The saying of the legendary medical practitioner holds true even today. Public relations in healthcare in our nation are still Greek to many and neglected.  

In a country like India where the union health budget is only two percent, around three fourths of its population is deprived of benefits of the central health budget.  

Role Of Public Relations In Healthcare Institutions

A first-hand view of healthcare public relations shows that the concerned practitioner maintains good relations with the media, government and statutory bodies to develop a proper image of the organization he or she works in. This is true for corporate hospitals, diagnostic centres and clinics.  

Government hospitals do not generally have proper corporate communications departments. The concept of public relations in such institutes depends upon the hospital managements, medical and paramedical staff.

The first valuable aspect of public relations in healthcare depends on proper doctor, paramedical and patient relations. In government owned hospitals the patient inflow is much higher compared to private health centres. The former has a mass draw and attraction while the second one is dependent on the upper class for its clientele. The mass cannot afford the high expenditure of corporate class hospitals. So their only option is government hospitals.  

Public relations in healthcare demands a smooth, effective understanding of medical needs by both patient parties and doctors. Any misunderstanding between both leads to confusion, disorder and violent interpretations which are never welcome in a civilized society.  

Ethics, Behaviour And Communication Gaps

Good behaviour, affectionate understanding of healthcare and inspiration that illness will be cured sans false promises is the ideal form of public relations which healthcare in India and all over the world needs. Paramedical staff also forms an integral part of this.

A recent survey shows that many top doctors of the nation, be it from government or private hospitals, suffer from silent attitude sickness. This is a dangerous prerogative. Such healthcare professionals think they are larger than life and treat patients with neglect and rude behaviour. This is not expected from the medical fraternity as the majority of patients are not expected to be medically literate. This is a harmful example of public relations in healthcare in India.  

Violence Against Medical Professionals

Violence on doctors and interns is dangerously increasing in India in recent times. The murder of Abhaya, the third year medical intern in August, 2024, shook the entire nation. For three months the public of West Bengal were barred from OPD treatment at all government hospitals which led to a number of deaths. The honourable Supreme Court ordered a special task force to be constituted for protection of doctors.

However the task force did not recommend any stringent central law for protection of doctors and paramedical staff. This has upset the entire medical fraternity which is still pursuing the cause of a proper law protecting them from unnecessary violence.

At the same time it has been found that conducting endless strikes to protest violence, wrong activities against our medical fraternity also does not pay. It only increases chinks in the armour as patients are denied regular treatment and it is no less a crime compared to violence on medical staff.

Models Of Excellence In Healthcare PR

CMC Vellore is the only leading medical college and hospital in India which has never responded to any strikes and shut downs. It stands as a perfect example of true public relations in healthcare delivering the best of treatment in the nation. A leading American patient visiting the institute said after the dreaded COVID period that CMC Vellore was the only Indian healthcare centre to match top western standards.

Not that there are no other hospitals in the nation which offer any less quality healthcare. Top personalities like Preetha Reddy, Dr Arti Maria and Dr. R V Asokan are nationally known medical personalities from arenas of hospital administration, neonatology and pulmonology who silently practice public relations in healthcare by maintaining the best of relations with patients, public and all concerned with their work.

Humanitarian Efforts And Grassroots Impact

Dr. Nandini Duggal, eminent microbiologist has rightly summed public relations in healthcare as a perfect two-way communication between medical practitioners and patients from which both sides benefit.

Himanshu Kalia is Ambulance Man of New Delhi, NCR. His wife Twinkle Kalia is Delhi's first woman ambulance driver who won a President's award and she is a breast cancer patient. The couple, though not highly educated, have delivered 24 hours of free ambulance and blood bank services selflessly in Delhi, NCR for about two decades. They also help police in detecting corpses which lie unrecognized and to complete their last rites. What better public relations in healthcare can the common man of the capital expect in comparison to the selfless, humanitarian services the couple gives daily.

There are no proper educational guidelines for public relations in healthcare. It is to be learnt and practiced with experience, work and above all ethics. As another World Health Day approaches India should mature and sharpen its public relations in healthcare with a more benevolent and reflexive concern.

I am a Kolkata based freelancer.

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