Physician, heal thyself

There are no words to condemn the brutal murder of a lady doctor at Thoothukudi, Tamil Nadu, as an angry public reprisal for the death of a woman patient due to alleged negligence. Following this, on a call given by the Tamil Nadu Government Doctors' Association (TNGDA) and the Indian Medical Association (IMA), doctors of both Government and private hospitals all over the State went on strike, demanding “full protection” in the discharge of their duties.

Their distress is understandable. However, practising a noble profession as they do, and knowing how they are looked upon by the aam aadmi almost as gods, they are also expected to take note of the hardships and humiliations to which the heartless black sheep among them subject the patients and their relatives.

In this particular instance, the relatives of the dead patient have levelled grave accusations of extortion of Rs 10,000 as bribe, and wilful disregard of the patient's worsening condition for two hours until the amount was paid.

BITTER RECOLLECTIONS

Both the TNGDA and the IMA owed it to the people, as a matter of their collective social responsibility and proof of their adherence to the Hippocratic oath that they solemnly take at the time of taking the degree, to have ascertained the truth or otherwise of the allegations before they exposed lakhs of patients to risks to their lives by their strike.

It is not simply the common folk that have bitter recollections of their experience with doctors and hospitals. I am sure that everyone has some horror stories of callousness to tell.

There was, for example, the case of the wife of an elderly person who had been admitted to a brand hospital with acute breathlessness and chest infection. One evening, he noticed the monitor showing an alarming fall in oxygen in the blood and he called the consultant over the mobile to apprise him.

The head of the concerned department of the hospital, which has also got the prestigious accreditation from the Joint Commission International, coolly said that he was in the midst of his pujas which would take half-an-hour or so and he could attend to the crisis only after he completes his pujas ! He promised to return the call in half an hour, but didn't. That half hour could have made a difference of life and death in some cases.

The other example is of a medical crisis at home. Finding his wife losing consciousness, a senior citizen phoned a doctor who lived within walking distance, requesting him to come and have a look.

The doctor's nonchalant response was that as an MD, he was not expected to make house calls and if the husband felt like it, he could bring his wife to the medico's clinic. He refused to entertain the senior citizen's desperate plea that the clinic was some distance away and his wife was in no position to move.

OUT OF BOUNDS

Mark you, the persons so brusquely dealt with were known to the doctors as respectable citizens of high social standing, and still they misbehaved with them. The plight of the common people can be easily imagined.

I have known doctors who have made their mobiles out of bounds for consultations or fixing appointments and think nothing of giving a testy brush-off to the patients phoning them. There are quite a few doctors who behave rudely with patients, do not keep to the time of appointment given and are irritated when asked to explain the diagnosis, prescriptions, or line of treatment.

I am not here going to dwell upon the many stories that appear in the media from time to time about the nexus between doctors and pharmacists and diagnostic laboratories and the revenue targets fixed for doctors in corporate hospitals leading to unnecessary tests and scans and needlessly prolonged stay in the ICUs and the hospitals.

The plain fact is that patients and their relatives feel the most vulnerable before doctors, without any avenue for redress. This applies whether the doctors are practising on their own, or working in hospitals. One is tempted to think of appearance before a doctor as the best antidote to one's ego, without any need to recite scriptures or go to gurus. Patients and their relatives do not dare to take on a doctor or a hospital, lest any attempt on their part to ask for explanation or hold the doctor to account should result in bad blood and come in the way of proper treatment.

DULCET SLOGANS

Patients feel virtually lost in the corridors of large corporate hospitals, in particular. The tortuous formalities in which they are enmeshed there from the moment they enter their portals can beat even the government bureaucracies hollow. They find an inordinately long time taken for allotment of rooms at the time of admission or for shifting patients between the ICUs and the wards, resulting in their having to make heavy payments for stays apparently longer than required.

Ironically, though, there are plenty of dulcet slogans blazoned all over the place: “Patients First”, “We care for you”, “Your health is our paramount concern”, “Your cure is for sure”, “Nothing but the best at your disposal”.

There are also Guest Relations Executives and Hospitality Dispensers ostensibly to make patients welcome. But you will nowhere find details of their names and mobile numbers. It is difficult to have access to those responsible for the various services and medical disciplines in times of need.

The less said about Government hospitals the better. They are a byword for corruption from the ward boy to the nurse to even the doctor, as has been alleged in the Thoothukudi case, apart from their being stinkingly unhygienic.

What are the various associations of doctors and the Indian Medical Council doing to combat these ills and live up to the ideals of the medical profession and the people's expectations?

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