COMMERCIALISATION DESTROYING DOCTORS?

Practitioners of modern medicine have got so immersed in science and technology, they have forgotten that faith and nature play a very vital role in the cure of most diseases, especially so in chronic ailments.By Dr. V.N. Jindal.

MONEY HAS BECOME a driving force in today’s medicine. In many parts of the world, practice of medicine has become more of a business than a profession. Very often doctors refer unsuspecting and vulnerable patients from one specialist to another for no reason other than profit. Another major drawback of modern medicine is the huge expense on investigations, hospitalization and treatment. Medical professionals today have forgotten the art of healing and depend on the scientific component of it. Most doctors today depend heavily on the investigations, which cost the patient a fortune.

In Western countries, due to increasing cost of treatment, insurance companies have started exerting their control on the practice of medicine. They decide how much and when a patient is to be investigated, how long he or she can be hospitalized and which doctor is to be consulted. This is unfortunate. The control of medical practice should never be taken away from medical professionals who should be the best judge and should be able to decide the best course of treatment for their patients without any outside pressure. In poor countries like ours, where insurance is almost non-existent, the high cost of medical treatment can lead many a family to bankruptcy.

High cost and indifferent attitude of the practitioners of modern medicine has started forcing patients to look for alternate modes of treatment e.g. Ayurveda, Homeopathy and Unani etc. Practitioners of these systems of medicine are good in their public relations and also have a holistic approach towards the art of healing. Also, the cost of treatment in these systems is much less. While for some chronic ailments these alternate therapies offer good cures, in acute problems, if the patient goes to these practitioners, the treatment may be delayed because for acute sickness, there is no alternative to modern medicine.

At the same time, practitioners of modern medicine have got so immersed in science and technology, they have forgotten that faith and nature play a very vital role in the cure of most diseases, especially so in chronic ailments. They have also got so carried away with specialization that they have no concept of holistic medicine. They don’t realize that excessive specialization increases the cost to the patient because of multiple referrals. Added to the increasing cost of consultations is the high cost of medicines that the modern medical practitioners prescribe. Many doctors prescribe these expensive medicines even without knowing their benefits, just because medical representatives have introduced these new drugs to them in a very convincing manner. Their contempt for old, time-tested medicines is not based on any scientific basis, but just because they wish to try new medicines. Also, nowadays several drug companies lure doctors with expensive gifts and free trips for holidays in the country as well as abroad, to solicit their patronization. This haphazard commercialization is one of the reasons for introduction of new molecules at a very rapid pace.

Similarly, there is an explosive advance in the availability of new diagnostic and therapeutic equipment. These equipment get obsolete in 5-10 years due to rapid advances in technology and their cost of acquisition is astronomical. It is prestigious for the large hospitals even in poor countries to boast of possession of these equipment without realizing if they are really useful for the patient in our set-up. As these high tech equipments become obsolete very fast and have to be replaced with more expensive equipment at a regular interval, there is pressure on the medical professionals by the hospital managements to make use of these equipments more and more. This in turn increases the cost of treatment and investigations for the patient.

In fact in some large corporate hospitals, the appointment of a consultant depends not upon his medical skills but his capacity to attract the clients, so that he can improve the bed occupancy and the utilization of these high tech equipment. These large hospitals also adopt unfair means of giving large publicity to the availability of these high tech, high cost gadgets, which attract not only the unsuspecting patients but also the referring doctors. Cut-practice, is another unethical way adopted by large hospitals to solicit referring doctors as they are lured with a share of earnings for the patient referred by them.

There exists an unholy nexus between doctors and chemists, doctors and doctors, doctors and pharmaceutical companies and doctors and quacks. This leads to malpractices by doctors who want to make a fast buck. Qualified doctors cleverly exploit quacks to their benefit and at the same time extend the benefit of their own qualifications to protect these quacks from legal punishments.

“If you cannot beat them (quacks), join them.” Doctors, tired of losing business to quacks, are searching for employment with them. Some doctors allow their name, qualification and medical registration numbers to be used as the quack prescribes allopathic medicines.

The underlying reason for all these unethical practices is the desire to make fast money. The medical profession used to be a noble one where the doctors used to get comfort from the social status and respect they used to command in society. However, with the change in values, with the world becoming more and more materialistic and also because of the stiff competition in the medical field, the doctors also want to make a fast buck. This is more so when they realize that one’s social status does not depend on one’s professional skills but on the bank balance that one has, the type of car one moves in, the clothes that one wears and the hotels one visits in the evening. Doctors are getting increasingly disenchanted with their profession when they see that other fellow beings with far fewer qualifications and less stress of work, can go abroad every year for holidays, moves in luxury cars driven by a well dressed chauffer and has large mansions by the sea-side.

Another reason for doctors resorting to unethical practices is frustration. A consultant joins medical college or starts his practice after putting in at least 12 years of rigorous training in the medical school during which he had hardly been paid any decent amount of money. After all this hard work he is paid a paltry sum of about Rs 15000 while on the other hand an IT graduate or a management graduate starts at a salary three times of this just after four years of studies. This is one reason why today most of the medical colleges are finding it very difficult to attract young talent for teaching jobs and this the primary reason that those who join these institutions due to some passion or compulsion soon start indulging in unfair means to get money. After all, how long can one find solace in admiring the piece of paper that he earned after hard work of 12 years in medical school? His family expects much more from him in the form of comforts of life.

Earlier, one had the consolation of belonging to a glamorous profession i.e. medical profession and to some extent that used to compensate for the financial loss. But unfortunately, even that glamour is also no longer there. Now, more and more patients are dragging the doctors to the consumer courts after availing of the treatment. The medical professional has to pay high compensation if he loses the case as compared to a goods dealer who has to just refund the cost of the goods and may be a small amount of extra money. This extra burden has to be met from the income of the doctor and this naturally has to come from the fee and other charges to the patient. Thus basically it is our system and social values that have brought the medical profession to this state of affairs. Doctors alone can’t be blamed for this.

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