Most attacks take place in emergency rooms and intensive care units, where tensions run high over critically-ill patients. The perpetrators are mostly escorts of the patient. Coming to terms with a near ones death is always difficult and putting the blame on someone seems to be an easy option. Grief due to loss soon transforms into anger & frustration and doctors become soft targets to abuse.
Most govt hospitals and small nursing homes are inadequately equipped to handle sudden onslaught by irate mobs .The number of doctors and paramedic staff is clearly inadequate to handle the huge number of patients visiting most govt hospitals . Those present are often overworked and at times unable to deal effectively with the grieving relatives of the patients. It may not be possible to have an experienced senior doctor present 24X7 in all ICU or emergency departments and the junior doctors, often well into 24-36 hr shifts, busy catering to various ailments, may not at times be able to do justice to a patients panicky escort . A trained social guide/facilitator, posted in a few well equipped hospitals can effectively handle such situations, leaving the doctor free to attend to the medical needs of the patient. However, the fact is that most of the over crowded govt hospitals and the small nursing homes lack such a facility leading to a huge gap between public expectation and reality.
There is no strict restriction to the number of visitors as culturally people feel compelled to visit a patient often as per their convenience outside stipulated visting hours and beyond the permissible family members . The intervention by political goons makes adhering to any rule very difficult in our country. The police often have no clue as to which section should assault against doctors be registered. There seems to be no accountability of either the violent perpetrators nor the security agency nor the hospital management.
The escalating cost of medical treatment is also a major cause of dissatisfaction. A shortage in supply of free medicines, investigations or equipments, necessitates the patient to outsource by paying for these and this causes anger that gets directed at the nearest available scapegoat, namely the attending doctor, who often does not have direct control over the above situation.
At times its an unrealistic expectation that irrespective of the critical condition of their patient the doctor will be able to reverse the illness or injury. Failure to meet that expectation causes a trust deficit and frustration that erupts in violence against the doctors. Irresponsible media coverage further serves to erode the trust leading to ugly incidents.
The incidences can be effectively prevented or reduced drastically by adopting several good management practices as evident by the absence of violent incidents in well equipped accredited health institutions which unfortunately may be out of reach to a large chunk of population. 
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