Sleeping Chaperon

It is essential that a woman patient has a chaperone when a male doctor examines her. There are a problem with the implementation of this requirement in our center. The number of nurses and woman servants is far less than the actual requirement. So a number of times there is a male doctor without anyone to be a chaperone for his female patient. Proceeding without a chaperone is not only against the ethical practice, but also quite dangerous for both the patient and the doctor. On one hand the doctor may not behave inappropriately with the patient, and on the other the patient may falsely claim he did so in order to achieve some ulterior motive. We sometimes adjust by getting another female patient to stand in as a chaperone. There is always a big queue of patients. Usually they do not mind if another womann stands around while they are examined externally. For an internal examination, a nurse or woman attendant is summoned. I being a boss deserve more courtesy, they believe. So the nurse either helps me herself, or keeps a woman servant to help me. The servant assigned this work in my antenatal clinic is elderly, somewhat obese, somewhat lethargic, and often sleepy. She sits on a stool near a corner next to the examination table and dozes off while I see patients. I have to wake her up periodically. That day there were two male doctors examining patients in two adjacent cabins with a common door in between. There was only one attendant – the sleepy one. So I asked her to move her stool to the connecting door and sit on it. She could watch both the doctors and their patients from there. “The only problem with this arrangement is that she cannot sleep, sitting away from her corner. If she does, she is at risk of falling down” I said. This will keep her awake, I thought. She proved me wrong soon after I left the clinic. She went to sleep on the stool and fell down. I heard her head hit the floor, but was OK on radiographic tests. She took a few days off to recover. I hope she uses that time to catch up with her sleep, so that she will be alert when she resumes duty.