The Hindu Business Line : The great fall

Of all the professions that have evolved through centuries in the service of mankind, the one that has markedly fallen low from its high pedestal is the doctor’s. Greatly respected and held in high esteem even until the 1950s, they were believed to belong to a noble profession. But, alas! What a fall has there been since those times! That this has been noticed in the US, the land of prosperity, is all the more regrettable.

Money matters

Lust for lucre has somehow crept into the field of medicine and polluted the clean atmosphere that had prevailed here from the ancient days when the tribal physician’s healing touch had all the aura of divinity. However, recent developments in the US reveal a refreshing sign of possible reversal of the deteriorating process in upholding ethical standards.

Public consciousness, an ever-watchful press and well-meaning academic centres of the medical field have taken serious note of the spreading infection and have begun voicing their concern. The move cannot have been more appropriately timed. It appears that drug manufacturers, companies dealing in appliances and major retailers have been making liberal gifts and giving away substantial quantities of free samples to several in the profession — not merely doctors but staff and even senior students on the verge of donning the medical practitioner’s mantle. That in return they expected a continual patronage from the recipient and recommendation of their products to their clients is needless to mention. In fact, according to statistics, a stage had been reached when the industry was spending on gifts far more than on advertisements and research programmes.

US drive

Reaction to this evil practice started initially in the form of rumours and whispers among affected people but soon gained credence. The drive for rooting out the corruption was launched by the Columbia University Institute of Medicine as a Profession, which began persuading all academic centres in the field to severely warn the suspected drug manufacturers and others indulging in the bribery. The initiative by these academicians, to whom ethical values were sacred, it is hoped, would help wiping out the proliferation of the tainted business motive.

On the Indian scene, conditions are not likely to be different, as the practitioner can still take cover under the credulity of a large number of people who believe in the infallibility of the doctor. Though, perhaps, at an imperceptible level, alluring gifts are too much to resist and, yet, keep anyone above board. The favoured lot, specialists like eye surgeons and dentists, can have a lion’s share of all the benefits.

The case of an elderly patient, who woefully narrated how he had to part with a couple of thousands for having two molars pulled out, can be cited here. It is not surprising, therefore, that expert eye surgeons are now almost beyond the reach of the common man. Physicians, too, are no exception as most of them recommend, unabashedly, selected test labs, para-medical facilities and even pharmacies, when they write out their prescriptions.

A man to emulate

Amidst the alarming decline in standards, the memory of Dr Rangachari, the brilliant surgeon in Madras, who adorned the medical service, not more than sixty years ago, would surely provide a sublime inspiration. It is said that in every case he handled, he displayed a rare humanitarian approach in combination with consummate surgical skill. No tribute was more apt to extol his virtues than that “his left hand did not know what his right hand gave”. When would such another appear to pull back the medical profession from the present abysmal state and place it again on the high pedestal, where it once belonged.

(The author is a Chennai-based freelance writer.)

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