I haven't yet seen the episode of 'Satyamev Jayate' yet which tackles the issue of malpractices by the doctors.
But I can't understand the hue and cry by the doctors.
"Doctors ask Aamir Khan to say sorry-Hindustan Times"
"Doctors want Aamir to apologize for accusing them-Times Of India"
I do believe that not all doctors are not the same but then you do need to highlight the greedy doctors and bring them to justice. I agree there are thousands of doctors who give voluntary treatment to lakhs of patients and the pressures faced by them and at times also face violence from the patients' families but that in any way cant justify the malpractices of the medical professionals.
Isn't it normal for a doctor to recommend medicines of a certain drug company especially of big MNC pharma companies when cheaper and same quality generics are available? Isn't it a common practice to recommend medical shops and diagnostic centres to the patients so the doctors get their cuts? In a country like India every penny matters. Isn't it true doctors gets lavish gifts on festivals and even cars and foreign holidays from the pharma copmpanies?
I will give a recent example which happened to a very dear family member of my family. He had a brain haemmorhage and was taken to one of the bloody best private hospital in South Delhi. He was operated upon and put on ventilator. Previously he had a heart condition and was suggested a bypass surgery. The doctors at the so called 'REPUTED' hospital the moment came to know about the recommendation they tried to force us for the bypass surgery. But we refused and took the reports to the heart surgeon who had originally suggested the procedure. He simply said the operation is simply not going to help him in anyway and if he has to survive he will without the operation. When we took this doctor's consultation reports to the hospital they were nothing short of being dismissive about it. It was not only a question of money but rather survival.
I have another exmaple where my friend met with an accident in Bangalore and his hand was broken. We took him to a good but charitable hospital near the accident site. And what did they do? They simply referred him to a bigger and more famous hospital after some preliminary medication and plasters. Now in this big hospital the first question which was asked to me by a doctor was which "PACKAGE" do you want? Since my friend was covered by medical insurance the doctor tried recommending the packages.
If I start putting down more incidents people will be bored . I can keep on writing because these all incidents happened to my family and friends. Nowadays going to a private hospital is more like "You have to be a Millionaire" .One of my friend had to foot a huge bill because his sister was kept in the medical ICU for close to a month. Maybe in all the above cases I am wrong and the doctors right but then how come so often am I being wrong? Am I so illogical that I don't understand what the doctors say?
Sadly the government healthcare sucks so we have to go to the private hospitals. And since we treat doctors as gods we simply listen to them. The moment we raise the banner of revolt the doctors feel cheated that their 'HOLY' profession is being endangered. There are many of my classmates who are doctors and hopefully they don't up doing the same things which I despise. Take the criticism in your stride because if you are a good honest medical professional then you don't have anything to worry because people will always love you.
P.S Not a big fan of Satyamev Jayate but am glad someone is doing something to bring the issues out of the closet and make us think. A certain Mr Hazare can do well to follow the same path instead of going on accusing one and all. :P
No comments:
Post a Comment