It sounds shocking, but inside hospitals it’s often normalised

The idea of working for 72 hours straight sounds extreme if you’re hearing it from the outside. Most people can’t imagine staying awake, alert, and responsible for that long. But within hospital corridors, especially for resident doctors, stories like this don’t always surprise anyone.

That’s what makes the recent concern raised by the National Human Rights Commission feel important. It didn’t introduce something completely new. It just brought attention to something that has been quietly happening for a long time. And once that attention comes in, the question shifts from “is this normal?” to “should this be normal at all?”

At what point does “training” stop making sense

There’s always been this idea that medical training has to be tough. Long hours, unpredictable schedules, and constant pressure are almost seen as part of becoming a doctor. Many who have gone through it will say that’s how they learned.

But there’s a difference between learning under pressure and being pushed beyond reasonable limits. When someone is working continuously for such long stretches, the body doesn’t just get tired, it starts to shut down in ways that affect judgment and focus.

That’s where the conversation moves into something bigger than training. It starts touching on Human rights, because the question is no longer about how much someone can handle, but about how much they should be expected to handle. The involvement of the National Medical Commission also brings attention to whether there are enough checks in place to prevent situations like this from becoming routine.

The system explains it, but doesn’t fully justify it

Hospitals often run under constant pressure. There are more patients than doctors in many places, and emergencies don’t follow schedules. That’s the reality, and it’s not easy to manage.

Because of that, long shifts sometimes get treated as unavoidable. They become part of how the system copes. But just because something happens out of necessity doesn’t automatically make it acceptable. This is why the issue keeps coming back. It’s not a one-time problem. It’s something built into the way things function, and that’s what makes it harder to fix.

The United Indian

When endurance becomes expectation

At The United Indian, this doesn’t feel like a question with a simple answer. Doctors are expected to handle pressure, but that expectation slowly turns into endurance being taken for granted.

The discussion around Human rights here is not about questioning commitment. It’s about recognising that even in demanding professions, there has to be a point where limits are respected. Without that, what is seen as dedication can start looking like something else entirely.