WHY ONLY DOCs !!!!!!
Two recent incidents where doctors were badly beaten up by relatives of patients who succumbed to their illnesses…….our most unwanted, scary and above all inhuman. One of these patients was over eighty and in advanced stage of cirrhosis with liver failure and renal failure in critical care in ICU.
Before I proceed to pen down my views I would like to claim that doctors are lucky to have been chosen by God and blessed by Him to heal…..and we all connected with medical services should never forget it and put in our best efforts at all times and in all circumstances for the health and life of patients.
Medical care has become a service and is being offered as any other service including medical tourism……but all this is at the need of the patient and usually his relatives. The five star hospitals are more for the comfort and convenience of relatives than for the patient and in most cases medical treatment rendered is same
Just because one can afford to or has paid the bills of medical services being provided and promised by the owner of the medical set up…..it is no guarantee to no complication and no death
In spite of being a very ardent believer and preacher of the principle, that every doctor should respect the faith ,that the patient, imposes on him or her, especially in a surgeon, in handing over one self, in a state of anesthesia to be cut(operated) ,I cannot resist but put forward my views ,to defend the doctors.
The common complaints against doctors is that they spend less time, act pricy and are hard to get around, its difficult to get an appointment, advice plenty of investigations, give multiple drugs, overuse painkillers and sedatives ,charge heavy fee and the biggest misconception in the society is that all doctors are multimillionaires and carry bags of money home every day…………….and finally that he doctor didn’t do enough to prevent complications and death
Before accusing a doctor next time of all these do get an experience of a hotel, a holiday, a lawyer, an interior decorator…….and even of just an ordinary electrician, plumber, carpenter, mason…..and do visit the service centers of banks, mobiles, internet connections, credit cards etc…you will then get an idea of their tantrums, quality of work, rates, bills, overshooting of time frames, incomplete work, number of visits ……..and the worst that in spite of all this in most situations, the work never finishes in the way it was planned or conceived and we often discard it or just give it up and move ahead buying a new or changing plans of just accepting whatever we get unwillingly
I agree that medicine is a profession different from most because it has human health and life attached to it, and I can assure that most doctors respect this humanitarian aspect. But while all other experts, professionals, and service providers exploit the normal man in the name of expertise why cant a trained experienced and well qualified doctor charge for his time and services within the accepted norms.
Investigations are essential to reach the depth of the case and are often asked for and prompted by the incomplete knowledge of the patient and his family derived from internet. Most doctors are hard pressed for time and so cant spend much time during prime OPD hours but never fail or refuse to answer and relevant queries and if they can understand a investigation report just at a glance it speaks of their experience and their expertise to see the exact reports that really matter to plan the treatment
We should all understand that, the doctor is, just a very small part of any medical set-up, be it private or government, and is often as helpless and harassed as the patient ,if not more, by the system .Long queue, non availability of drugs, non functioning equipment, inadequate and inefficient para medical staff, improper care by nursing staff, waiting lists for surgery and bed crunch, are all well beyond most of the doctors ,most of the times.
Leaving an instrument inside the body, during surgery, removing the wrong organ and at times prescribing wrong medicine, are mistakes, that should not happen by anyone ,but as human as a doctor can be, they do happen, in spite of all checks for prevention, like any other mistakes that occur in any filed be it engineering, marine or driving! We are human too, and liable to err, though we should try our level best to avoid such unwanted mishaps.
Complications and deaths are an integral part of all medical care and though we all put in all our best endevours to improve quality of care and ensure practice of safe medicine, deaths and complications will occur……but a good doctor should never get immune to them and should never stop striving to prevent them and to bring their number to least and negligible if not nil.
Doctors are there for providing medical help and treatment but they have never claimed to be and are not Magicians! If your lifestyles swings from one end of overexertion to a totally mechanical and sedentary life leading to severe body ache, or if the stress of your life turns you into an insomniac, the doctor has no alternative but to repeatedly prescribe pain killers and sedatives, even if you become an addict, specially if you are not willing to change your lifestyle. The Doctor can advice, but cannot, exercise, diet or change a lifestyle for you, even if you can afford a personal phycian for yourself !
Doctors are as human as anyone else, and hence besides having all the human follies, have desires and ambitions and commitments too .If a 20 year old undergraduate, with just a 3-6 months on the job training, can charge 200-300 rupees just to look up a TV, comp or a washing machine, why cant a 35 year old post graduate specialist charge a fee of Rs 500?Life of a pilot is tough, but there is no profession which is more taxing ,in physical, mental, emotional and financial stress, as medicine, and an average doctor is minimum ten years behind his counterparts in any field, in terms of designation, earning and comfort .And most of the doctors do not earn as much as most people think they do, and the earning is definitely less than, the others at that age and stage ,in any other career.
The doctor has a family too and needs to maintain a standard……I agree that no malpractice should ever be practices but why is a doctor made to feel guilty for earning even by the normal lawful means
Medicine is a noble profession, and we all respect the faith of the patients in us, and though we must all ensure to avoid any situation that may endanger the life of a patient or worsen the condition, we need a little more compassion from the clientele ,in recognition of the stress under which a doctor works normally, and at least of a common man, who wants to earn a living and can err too!
If the clientele acts as they have acted in few incidents recently, it will be difficult or rather impossible for doctors to take risks and treat critically ill patients
We can assure best efforts but not best results always
To end ,I would like to assure on behalf of all from the medical fraternity that we are doing our best where ever and in whatever circumstances we are and most mishaps are unintentional and unavoidable and we sincerely pray for the recovery of all our patients. We also request all our clientele to treat as human beings and not as infallible medical magicians or programmed robots who can never err in judgment or fail to fight the decision of fate and destination and decisions of God
Prof Sanjay Kapoor ,Bareilly