Fact Check: WHO did not say India tops in disrespecting doctors

A screenshot of a news story is going viral. The news story claims that the WHO-guided survey group has found that India tops the list of countries that disrespect doctors.

By Tejal Sinha  Published on  10 Jun 2021 11:39 AM IST
India tops in disrespecting doctors

Hyderabad: A screenshot of a news story is going viral. The news story claims that the WHO-guided survey group has found that India tops the list of countries that disrespect doctors.



Fact Check

The claim made through the screenshot is a hoax. The screenshot is morphed.

Claim 1: The screenshot mentioned India Today. The screenshot has also mentioned that the news was published under the education tab.

In this section, only the news related to the topics like students and education were found. We could not find any content like the news in the viral screenshot on the India Today website.


Apart from this, we found a big difference in the style sheet of the original news on the India Today website and the news in the viral screenshot. There is no full punctuation in the headline of any news item on the India Today website and the font is also different.

India Today had debunked the morphed screenshot.

https://www.indiatoday.in/fact-check/story/morphed-india-today-screenshot-disrespecting-doctors-1812105-2021-06-08

India Today also tweeted about the morphed image having the logo of the organization.



Claim 2: The morphed screenshot had mentioned that the survey was done by World Health Organization (WHO).

NewsMeter tried to search if there were any such surveys done by WHO. According to India Today, a study published in "The National Medical Journal of India", over 75 percent of doctors in India have faced violence at work. However, the report adds that violence against medical practitioners is a global phenomenon.

https://www.nmji.in/article.asp?issn=0970-258X;year=2017;volume=30;issue=2;spage=97;epage=100;aulast=Nagpal

WHO had also conducted a study on Indian doctors in 2016, which revealed that around 57 percent of "allopathic doctors" in India did not have a medical qualification.

https://www.who.int/hrh/resources/16058health_workforce_India.pdf

Another study revealed that two-thirds of patients around the world feels disrespected by their physicians.

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/patients-around-the-world-are-not-happy-with-their-physicians-feeling-disrespected-hurried-through-visits-and-shut-out-of-treatment-decisions-125559353.html

However, there were neither any reports nor any such survey by the WHO as stated in the morphed screenshot.

Evidently, the image is a hoax as no such survey has been conducted by WHO. Plus India Today did not publish any such article.

Claim Review:India is top in disrespecting doctors, says WHO survey
Claimed By:Social Media Users
Claim Reviewed By:Newsmeter
Claim Source:Social Media
Claim Fact Check:Misleading
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