Effective communication skills can ease the difficult job of doctor of dealing with patients and their family members. Rude attitude and inability of doctors to communicate with patients often result in problems for both doctors and their patients.

To enhance the interactive skills of doctors the medical education department is launching its people-management skill programme for doctors. The first session will start from Sunday. Doctors will be made aware of numbers of ways to deal with patients and their family members, especially in difficult situations.

Initially, a batch of resident doctors from Grant Medical College (JJ Hospital, Mumbai), B J Medical College (Pune) and Government Medical

College of Aurangabad will be trained. The duration of the programme will be 16 hours. There will be four sessions of four hours’ duration each on all the four Sundays of a month.

A private organization, Leadership Management International, will also assist in the project.

Bhushan Gagrani, medical education secretary said: “We have enacted a law to protect doctors from aggrieved relatives. Now, we are launching a pilot project in which resident doctors will be give an insight into the root of detrimental behaviours by patients’ families so that they will be able to tackle tricky situations better.’’