I don’t think so. Many recent cases make me think; are doctors really there to cure us or to make money? One of my relatives recently got admitted to the hospital due to low pressure. Now these doctors, just to make some quick bucks, they admitted him to ICU and we are still wondering why the hell he was admitted to ICU..no serious problems at all..just low pressure…
And he is totally alright now, but the doctor is saying they will have to keep him in the hospital for next 3-4 days…daily injections without any need, daily medical tests without any need…just to make quick bucks…
I think there is some show on a news channel over medical negligence.
But looting by private hospitals is also very common. Like prescribing to medicines which are only there in their medical store and stuff
yeh they like to make money ..
once my sis was not well… i mean admited to hospital… my daddy told the doc, tht we have the mediclaim…
and wht else the doctor want… he charged like anything.. obviously .. he is gonna get the money . either from my daddy or from govt.. wht diff does it makes.. the point is he is getting the money…
kya kare .. papi pet ka sawal hai… 😉
Very True…
They can go to much more higher limits… my uncle got admitted to hospital for a heart surgery, after the surgery he died but they kept him on some kinda machine for 3 days saying he is alive (this was later busted by a family doc on seeing the dead body at house, he said the person died a couple of days back).
But thats not the end… there was cut and stich near the kidneys, looks a kidney surgery was also performed (God knows why?)…and it wasnt charged… why? coz they had removed the kidneys without permission. So theres a kidney racket also going on in these big hospitals.
And forgot to mention one more thing… once I met a medical test centre guy through a close pal… on pursuation he said the truth… he gives 40% of the bill amount to the doctors who refer the patient to him.
No wonder why doctors ask the patients to get all and sundry type of tests done!!
Tuxian..thats shocking…did you report this to police?
deep & tuxian , the same incident happened with my close friend’s uncle ( ironically that hospital is associated with Escorts ) , that hospital kept dead man for 2 days , saying relatives that he is alive , encashing money , that too revealed when some in circle guy informed us , after all kriya karam done.
Well we were planning but my aunt (the widow) got emotional and said let the dead man be in peace and perform his last rites as soon as possible.
We tried to pursuade her but she didnt listen.
Hmm..
With 52.5% reservations in top instis like AIIMS, JIPMER,MMC, etc… it’s very difficult to get admission, so they pay money (more than 20L!) and join in private instis. So they need to “recover” that money naa…
Hi deep,
we have been interacting on another platform ( MTNL TRIBAND), somehow i managed to reach this one too. 🙂
Wow, there is some serious doc bashing going on, but isn’t it generalising the whole community. its like saying that the whole of IT community are hackers.
I know this coming from a doc does not carry much weight but just a few things to open your eyes.
1. We study for 5 1/2 years in our graduation and 4 years in post graduation and may be 3 years more for super specialisation. we treat nearly 50-100 patients a day in out patient department during our internship & post graduation . Multiply that by the number of years and you get a stagerring number. Our learning curve is more than over when we finish our studies. In which other field does this happen?
2. If i start talking about networking and programming with a IT professional, i am sure to be lacking in knowledge. similarly when u guys talk abt ‘medical negligence’ u don’t know what u are talking abt. Losing a relative or family member is a very emotional issue and the easiest person to fix the blame on ( to lose some of that emotional baggage) would be the treating Doctor. No Doctor worth his salt would want his patient to die. Don’t forget these are the same guys who become god when they treat your damaged valves, ruptured kidneys, tuberculosis, malaria and even pimples.
3. Medicine is not an exact science. It has never been so. Not all diseases are known or treatable. Some can just be controlled and some can’t even be controlled. It takes a lot to learn about it and every passing day the fundamentals change. New drugs, new treatment modalities are discovered everyday. It takes a lot to know and practise such a vastly changing science. Most of us are scrouging the net only to learn the latest being practised through out the world. It is important to understand that there are no 100% guarantee scheme given by God and therefore doctors can’t execute such a scheme.
4. Negligence in any field is unpardonable; why single out medicine? A mistake by a train driver can kill hundreds; Does that mean all train drivers are negligent? spot the black sheep, don’t paint the entire profession black.
5. Medicine in a private practice is not only for curing people but also a profession with which the doctor runs his family. He is bound to charge his patients, why shouldn’t he? don’t you all charge the customer for the service you render? whether or not we treat poor patients with concession is a matter of purely personal concern and should not influence the patients who are paying. Overcharging is bad for a physician’s own practise. The only means of advertsiement for us is word of mouth; if we overcharge, give bad results, do not care enough then we would suffer ourselves with bad publicity and negative clientelle growth. Let the markets take charge of bad physicians.
6. Lastly the best patient is a patient who is aware; Aware about his disease, aware about the treatment options and aware about the treating doctor options. Just as you choose an appliance carefully, choose your family doctor, hospital and consultant judiciously. Talk with your doctor, understand your disease through him and the options with you and once you have made your decision, please TRUST HIM/HER.
With due sympathies to those who have lost their loved ones, despite treatment.
Great points Dr. Vinay Gopalani 🙂 but here we are just discussing about the doctors who fail to do their job correctly…all doctors are not bad at all 🙂 I still thank the doc. who had done my major operation 2 years back with easy and I didn’t have any problems after that at all…..but from 100, 10 are going to be bad..and that is everywhere. (except politics..where 10 are good out of 100 😉 )
Yes, That’s true. It is important to understand though, that your level of understanding a medical problem might be different from the doctors. Low blood pressure can sometimes lead to syncope ( decreased blood flow to the brain),. If not treated immediately can be problematic. The doctor while admitting your relative to ICU was probably being careful. And god forbid if there would have been an emergency, you would have thanked his acumen for keeping him in ICU care. There is a great shortage of ICU beds ( read this http://www.healthlibrary.com/news/2004/27-2-oct04/news7.html) and therefore it is not in the doctor’s interest too to keep unnecessary patients in ICU.
Don’t get me wrong, i am not being biased, just putting the other side of coin in perspective. The ideal situation would have been where u would have dicussed the problem with your doctor and understood his point of view.
I wish this was true 🙁 that doc is very well known for doing these kind of things..but these guys were not aware about it so they got him admitted there…
Dear Deep,
I wonder why an averagely educated and intelligent human being cannot understand that not all diseases can be cured and not all patients who suffer from serious emergencies may return home alive even after the best efforts of the best medical brains.
Most people expect that a doctor is qualified to “cure.” No, he is not! He is only trained to alleviate the symptoms possible to the maximum extent that current developments in medical science allow him to.
There are a number of black sheep in all professions and doctors are no exception. Every patient should discuss with their doctor and understand what the doctor is trying to do. If the answers are not satisfactory the patient must try to get a second opinion.
Hello ,
I stumbled upon this blog post as I was randomly looking for answers for my questions regarding mordern medicine and my utter reluctance to trust everything associated to it.
What is really reassuring is reading posts such as the one above that Dr.Gopalani wrote. The point that he put across are completely valid. As he rightly pointed it out , medicne is not exact science and all that the doctors do is to try to help us as much as possible.
Great post Doc 🙂
Swathi
Great post Dr. Gopalani! Am happy we do have some great docs around us and I am glad to be associated with some good doctors like you. Well just to mention he is a great doc who knows his job well and has done a great job in treating my psoriasis on very meager charges. Kudos to you doc! He knows his job really well.