In the present era, Doctors are ebbed from all sides, need to earn back the dignity of profession and resist oppression. The phenomenon of oppression in the name of medical- regulation is a global issue. The oppressive schemes in the misleading names like #RTH Rajasthan (RIGHT TO HEALTH) are prevalent everywhere globally in some form or another.
Doctors and nurses have been reduced to no more than moral and economical slaves either by industry or administrators, not infrequently pulled by legal bridle in their noses.
Doctors in Rajasthan India have shown first of its kind revolt, that is just waiting to happen globally at some stage.
It is not easy to practice as doctor these days. Media full of doctors bashing, credibility crisis and regulators perpetually hounding doctors, who are forced to work under imposed medico-legal sword. There is no day that passes when system does not perpetuate negativity against medical profession.
By certain laws and Acts like RTH, an effort is on to place medicine under State control. Acquiring kind of skill , the years of passionate, merciless excruciating medical learning is placed at the disposal of administrators, who themselves have already failed to develop a good health care system in real sense.
Doctors have become soft targets for populist attention mongering and transforming social nuisance into messiah of the deprived by administrators -by sprouting the fraudulent generalities.
All the calculations that usually precede the enslavement of medicine, everything gets discussed by administrators and industry – except the well-being of the doctors and nurses.
Doctors have often wondered at the smugness with which administrators assert their right to enslave them, to control their work, to force their will, to violate their conscience, to stifle their mind. Irony is that while administrators do this, still they depend on the same doctors for saving lives -whose life they have throttled, who resent the treatment meted out to the health care workers. Like the failed medical system, administrators have failed to realize that all the negativity perpetuated against doctors, who are working with the burden of mistrust under medico-legal sword is going to make them less safe.
Administrators, who have never treated a patient in their lifetimes, not only try to control treatment of thousands of patients, but project themselves messiah by demonizing doctors. Lowly educated celebrities and administrators have found a new easy way to project themselves on higher pedestrian by publicly insulting highly educated but vulnerable doctors. The biggest tragedy to the medical profession in the present era is the new fad of administrators to discourage and demonize the medical profession for their popularity gains. Being so distant from the ground reality, their role should not have been more than facilitators, but they have become medical administrators. To control the health system, administrators have a tendency to pretend that shortcomings in the patient care can be rectified by punishing the doctors and nurses.
Slow or acute revolt is long due. Doctors have only two ways- either to persist, fight or perish. Silently quitting their beloved profession is going on for some time all over the world. Even in developed countries, there has been a fading enthusiasm to be a doctor. But doctors of Rajasthan have shown the way. The way to persist and resist the indignity handed over to medical profession. The have shown that the struggle was not that difficult that it looked to be. They have chosen the correct path of struggle for Independence (Professional). That makes them global leaders without any doubt.
In the new ‘ Right to Health- Bill- Rajasthan’, because of government inability to provide basic and essential services, private hospitals are dictated to render services. As services at Government hospitals are inadequate and have failed to provide facilities to handle the emergencies. Since the patients cannot be left without treatment, provision for emergency services should be made available to country’s population. That is the Government’s duty which the administrators have failed to fulfil. Therefore co-operation from private sector is expected, but it should be sought as help rather than an imposed dictate. This act, though may have a noble intention in mind, should be analysed by all stakeholders in an objective manners.
• Will government render some support in any manner to private health organizations, which they may need genuinely in order to do this difficult task, as the Government itself has been unable to do in so many years?
• In order to provide these essential services especially emergency and lifesaving, is government asking the private players for help for this noble cause or does this act simply dictates its wish onto the private players bulldozing their genuine concerns in doing so?
Will Government increase its’ own responsibility and accountability and shoulder more responsibility towards ‘Health to All’ or it is only for private doctors to provide?
• Will government provide physical and legal protection to doctors and health establishments on the issues arising from the act?
• Although the RTH looks like is a democratic action, but is it democratic to doctors and private health players as well? Are their genuine problems and views addressed and accommodated?
• What are government’s plans in the long term to improve such services? Does it plan to continue forcing the private setups (without ant help to them) or are there any plans to improve the government health facilities in future to a level commiserate with the need of the hour.
Imposing such dictates will definitely force the aspiring doctors to think, whether to choose medical career or not.
The Rajasthan government’s proposed right to health bill has landed in deep controversy due to objections from the private healthcare sector, which is dishonouring as a part of the protests the provision of cashless treatment under existing state-run schemes. The draft bill has been criticised as a hasty job that overlooks ground realities and suffers from lacunae that the Ashok Gehlot government is apparently resisting taking note of.
Chief minister Gehlot, on February 17, urged private hospitals to end their boycott of the Chiranjeevi scheme and the Rajasthan Government Health Scheme (RGHS), which provide mostly cashless treatment to private individuals and government employees, respectively, terming it improper on humanitarian grounds. “The private sector has a role to play in making Rajasthan a model state in healthcare, and we will clarify all doubts of private hospitals about the right to health bill,” Gehlot said. It remains to be seen if his appeal has any impact, given that private doctors’ associations have accused the government of intimidating private hospitals to end the boycott of the bill.
Social activists backing the bill have opened a separate front by criticising private hospitals for opposing the proposed legislation. The moot question is this: Does right to health only include private healthcare, which the bill aims at, or also things like potable water, clean air, unadulterated edibles and quality roads? In short, factors determining a healthy life but excluded from the ambit of the proposed law.
The bill has been in the pipeline for some months now. It was tabled in the state assembly in September 2022 but referred to a select committee subsequently because the Opposition and doctors’ fraternity wanted it be debated thoroughly. On February 15, the select committee deferred its scheduled meeting as private doctors threatened to step up their stir against the bill. Earlier, the state government had expressed its resolve to push ahead with passage of the bill.
A key contentious point in the bill is that no medical facility—whether government or private—can deny a patient ‘emergency’ care. The bill, however, falls short of defining ‘emergency condition’ and how the cost of treatment is to be reimbursed to private hospitals. Private doctors and private medical institutions feel the bill will give extraordinary powers to designated government officials to enter their premises and harass them.
Rajasthan has been witnessing a sharp rise in patient-doctor conflicts, both in government hospitals where doctors are accused of negligence as well as private medical facilities, which are accused of charging patients exorbitantly. Critics of the bill say it fails to address the concerns of doctors. Initially, private doctors had protested against the clause to compulsorily provide ‘emergency’ care to patients. They cited various aspects of their concern, such as someone with even a minor injury demanding emergency treatment at a hospital or a person suffering a heart attack approaching a hospital or nursing home that lacks facilities to deal with such a case.
As details of the draft bill emerged, there was also apprehension in the private healthcare sector that the bill may become a tool to bring ‘inspector raj’ into the medical sector. “Once you give officials open access to enter our premises, it is bound to be misused. The bill is a ploy of bureaucrats to control the private medical sector,” alleges Dr Vijay Kapoor, secretary, Private Hospitals and Nursing Home Societies, Jaipur. Highlighting ‘discrepancies’ in the bill, Kapoor points out that while a person who wheels in an accident victim to a hospital is entitled to a reward of Rs 5,000, the bill is silent on how the hospital would be reimbursed for treating the patient. “The bill
Private hospitals have been the backbone of the Gehlot government’s flagship Chiranjeevi scheme, under which beneficiaries are entitled to free treatment worth up to Rs 25 lakh in government and affiliated private hospitals. The scheme has been hit by the alleged refusal of many private hospitals to admit patients—as a symbol of protest against the right to health bill.
The Chiranjeevi scheme allows private hospitals to bill patients for certain costs incurred so as to partially compensate for the high cost of diagnostics and treatment. Private hospitals expect a similar consideration in the right to health bill, besides widening the scope of factors determining ‘healthy life’.
Some doctors wonder if a separate bill like this was necessary at all since right to health was enshrined as a fundamental right under Article 21 of the Constitution. Moreover, private doctors say they hardly have any representation in the various committees proposed to implement the provisions of the bill, grassroots level up.
Social activists like Nikhil Dey of the Rajasthan Soochna Evam Rozgar Adhikar Abhiyan and Kavita Srivastava of the Peoples Union of Civil Liberties (PUCL) are dismissive of the opposition to the bill. “It cannot be acceptable that the life of a rich individual is saved but not of a poor for want of money,” says Dey. Srivastava adds that while some objections of doctors could be genuine, the bill cannot be rejected outright.
Private doctors claim schemes to provide healthcare through the private sector under insurance coverage by the state government have been marred by corruption. “Hefty bribes are sought for empanelment of hospitals under these schemes, reimbursement of claims and settlement of complaints if any,” alleges Kapoor.
With more and more private hospitals allegedly refusing cashless treatment to private individuals and government employees under state-run health schemes, patients are suffering. Besides, given the accusation that officials demand bribes and some government doctors patronise certain private hospitals, Gehlot’s right to health bill appears caught in rough weather, all the more since it’s perceived as been hastily drafted.
In a reverse trend and one of the rare instances where a patient asking for 25 lakhs of compensation was penalized by NCDRC for frivolous complaint.
In present era, when patient is no more “patient” and defined as consumer, doctors’ status has been reduced to merely a service provider in lieu of little money. With Medical Consumer Protection Act has acquired roots, the whole system of medical delivery and healthcare has changed. Most striking is this entire fiasco is the “Us and Them” syndrome that seems to afflict all the stake holders. Doctors are pitted against every one- versus administrators, patients, managers, society and lawyers.
There is no dearth of such patients, relatives and lawyers who are ready to try their luck, sometimes in vengeance and sometimes for lure of huge money received in compensations. This encouragement and instigation of lawsuit against doctors has become a major disadvantage for medical profession.
Zero fee advertisements and fixed commission ads on television by lawyers in health systems in certain developed countries is an example of instigation against medical profession. They lure patients to file law suits and promise them hefty reimbursements.
The patients’ right activists, media, administrators, managers and lawyers have made their career and wealth out of it. Doctors know the truth that complications are not preventable beyond a point and are part and parcel of treatment. The line separating errors or natural complications is really blurred and arbitrary. The doctors who work in life and death situation know it well that even natural poor prognosis can be labelled and proved as error by retrospective analysis and wisdom of hindsight and more certainly with luxury of time at disposal for lawyers and courts.
It becomes an unbalanced match specially when the amount of money which was paid to doctor to save a life was peanuts as compared to now being paid to punish him.
Zero fee advertisements and fixed commission ads on television by lawyers in health systems in certain developed countries is an example of instigation against medical profession. They lure patients to file law suits and promise them hefty reimbursements.
A mere perusal of the prayer clause of the Complaint shows that on the face of it itself an exaggerated claim was made without any justification given.
14. The OP is a qualified Radiologist, having post graduate degree, MD (Radiology), and having extensive experience in performing USG of abdomen. There are certain limitations in USG. Sometimes the renal calculi are not visible due to intestinal gases shadows in the abdomen, sometimes stones even pass out through urine. Even the best of Radiologists cannot be better than the machine used for the USG, he cannot improve on the technical soundness or advancement of the machine available at his command. The more advanced a machine, the more precise is its report. However, not every hospital can afford the latest state of the art machines. And the Radiologist has to function with the machine available to him. Pertinently, an advanced Apollo Diagnostic possesses USG 730 (GE) Machine having Advanced Live 4-D Voluson, which has more precision and accuracy, was used in the USG cited at (c) in para 11 above, in which left lower ureter stone was detected.
15. The State Commission appears to have hastily arrived at its findings of medical negligence on the part of the OP, without examining to the requisite depth, the limitations and technicalities of USG, and without taking independent expert opinion on the subject where experts in the field could have thrown light from standard medical literature and brought forth limitations of the level of advancement of the machine used for imaging. As such its appraisal cannot sustain.
On the basis of the entire material on record and the critique made hereinabove no negligence is attributable to the OP Dr. Hulesh Mandle.
It is apparent that the instant Complaint was filed by the Complaint with wrong current address of the OP, beyond limitation, with highly inflated claim. The same, being bereft of any substance, being frivolous and vexatious, merits dismissal with cost of Rs. 10,000/- contemplated for such Complaints under Section 26 of the Act, 1986, to be deposited in the Consumer Legal Aid Account of the State Commission within six weeks from this Order.
More of a law and order issue, the physical assault on doctors reflects that they are serving an uncivilized society. Such news is viewed by medical community anxiously and is definitely a poor advertisement for younger generation to take medicine as profession. The medical students need to think, why they wish to enter medical profession in such an unsupportive environment?
Strangely media, courts, prominent people, celebrities, human right commission, right activists are little concerned about the blatant injustice done towards doctors. This again brings forth the hypocrisy of our society and law enforcement agencies, which otherwise cry hoarse about human rights, but practically doctors (while they save others), need to fend for themselves when ugly situations arise.
NEW DELHI: The Central government has decided not to enact separate legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and other healthcare professionals, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Tuesday.
In a written reply, Union Health Minister Dr Mansukh Mandaviya said that a draft of the Healthcare Services Personnel and Clinical Establishments (Prohibition of Violence and Damage to Property) Bill, 2019 was prepared and was also circulated for consultations.
“Thereafter it was decided not to enact a separate Legislation for prohibiting violence against doctors and other health care professionals,” he said to a question on the reasons for the withdrawal of the Bill, which intended to protect healthcare professionals and institutions.
Mandaviya said that the matter was further discussed with relevant ministries and departments of government as well as all stakeholders, and an ordinance namely The Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Ordinance, 2020 was promulgated on April 22, 2020.
However, the government, on September 28, 2020, passed the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, 2020 under which acts of violence against healthcare personnel during any situation were considered cognizable and non-bailable offences.
Speaking with TNIE, Dr Rohan Krishnan, National Chairman, FAIMA Doctors Association, said that there have been many cases of violence against doctors and health professionals in the past few months inside the government hospitals, but the union health ministry has not taken their demand to have a separate law for providing safety and security to healthcare workers and doctors seriously.
“The government needed us during the Covid-19 pandemic and came out with rules and regulations. We also felt safe and secure. But now that Covid-19 is declining and we were able to bring normalcy, the government is showing its true colours. It is shameful,” he said.
“The government is not standing up to its promise of bringing a separate law to prohibit violence against doctors and healthcare professionals,” he added.
“On the one hand, it has failed to provide mental and physical safety and security to the doctors and healthcare professionals; on the other hand, instead of having verbal communication with us regarding this matter, the government is denying any scope of providing a separate law in the future. This is a very serious issue. We will raise this issue at every level,” Dr Krishnan said.
Under the Epidemic Diseases (Amendment) Act, the commission or abetment of acts of violence or damage or loss to any property is punishable with imprisonment for a term of three months to five years, and with a fine of Rs 50,000 to Rs 2,00,000.
In case of causing grievous hurt, imprisonment shall be for a term of six months to seven years and with a fine of Rs 1,00,000 to Rs 5,00,000.
In addition, the offender shall also be liable to pay compensation to the victim and twice the fair market value for damage to property.
Since, law and order is a state subject, State, and Union Territory governments also take appropriate steps to protect healthcare professionals/institutions under provisions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC)/Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC), the minister said.
To another question on the number of security guards hired/outsourced by government hospitals in the country, the Minister of State for Health Dr Bharati Pravin Pawar said that public health and hospitals are state subjects, therefore no such data is maintained centrally.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM- Kerala: The assault on a woman doctor at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College has made doctors preparing for a career in the medical profession worried. A bystander kicked the woman doctor on her lower abdomen in front of an ICU in the middle of the night on November 23. The CCTV visuals showed that she was surrounded by a group of bystanders.
The physical assault on a lady doctor reflects that doctors are serving an uncivilized society. Such news is viewed by medical community anxiously and is definitely a poor advertisement for younger generation to take medicine as profession.
Strangely media, courts, prominent people, celebrities, human right commission, woman right activists and women commission are little concerned about the blatant injustice done towards doctors. This again brings forth the hypocrisy of these people and organizations, who otherwise cry hoarse about woman rights and empowerment. Whenever a female is assaulted, there is an outrage but the same support is not extended to a female if she is a doctor. Such bestiality should create havoc in minds of civilized people but this apathy to such incidents clearly indicates otherwise. Have we become so uncivilized that an incident such as this just remains as a small news item in a local paper? Can’t we see that such incidents are harbinger of many more in future? It is important to realize that this is the time to unify and condemn such episodes vehemently and prominently so that the miscreants realize that they cannot get away with it.
Brutality against doctors reveals a deep prejudice and lawlessness, merely on the basis of perceived negligence. Government is either unwilling to act and establish a strong culture of deterrence, so justice been elusive for medical professionals.
Even murderous assaults on doctors are not enough to shake administrators, courts and doctors’ organizations out of slumber. Definitely such violence, if unabated will be poor advertisement for next generation to take medical profession as a first choice.
Media and celebrities have proudly projected in films and television that doctors can be beaten and assaulted, in case there are unexpected results or in case of dissatisfaction. The “Reel Heroes” depicting violence against the doctor is seen as a routine and looked as an easily do-able- adventure due to unwillingness of Government to take stringent action. As patients will continue to get treatment in hospitals and few cannot be saved, so every death declaration may be a harbinger to such attacks in future.
A notion has been propagated that assaulting a doctor under emotional outburst to be taken as normal and should not be punished.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The assault on a woman doctor at Thiruvananthapuram Government Medical College has made doctors preparing for a career in the medical profession worried. A bystander kicked the woman doctor on her lower abdomen in front of an ICU in the middle of the night on November 23. The CCTV visuals showed that she was surrounded by a group of bystanders. She survived the attack and is recuperating. But the incident has left her shattered. “I am reconsidering my decision to become a neurosurgeon and even the career of a doctor,” she told Sulphi N, IMA state president, when he visited her in the hospital.The Kerala Medical Post Graduate Association has taken up her cause and demanded justice.
They are worried that such attacks would happen again and there would be a new victim. “It is unnerving that such attacks happen in medical colleges which are supposed to be a secure location. What will happen to us if we go to peripheral hospitals for practice,” said Dr Ruwise E A, Thiruvananthapuram unit president of Kerala Medical Post Graduate Association.He came to know from police officers that an arrest was unlikely on Friday and the accused was trying to secure bail. “The government should have arrested the culprit immediately and sent a message to the public that such attacks are not tolerated,” said Dr Ruwise.KMPGA plans to strengthen the strike if there is no arrest till Sunday. The doctors association has extended support to the protest by residents. “We cannot leave the students alone on this issue. It was an assault on a woman who was doing her duty. If it was a senior doctor who received such a kick on the lower abdomen he or she would not have survived the attack,” said Dr Nirmal Bhaskar, state president of Kerala Government Medical College Teachers Association (KGMCTA).The doctors share their angst as there was not enough support from government and society even when the attacks keep repeating. They did not take the Facebook post by Health Minister Veena George condemning the attack seriously.There are health experts who think that a multi-pronged approach is necessary to prevent such attacks. It involves reducing the crowd by strengthening peripheral hospitals, increasing staff and providing better security.“The government health system has become an easy target nowadays. Such attacks do not happen in private hospitals where bystanders pay the remaining hospital bills without uttering a word of protest even after the patient could not be rescued,” said Dr Althaf A, secretary of IMA, Thiruvananthapuram branch. He pointed out that there are no trained administrative cadres to manage a 4,000-bed MCH. All of this is managed by a superintendent who is also a professor with teaching responsibilities.
Medical Negligence case- Noida (death due to Covid -19) is an example that should force the aspiring doctors needs to think whether they should put themselves in such a situation- akin to catching a falling knife. A case which shows that in difficult situations, legal compulsions have potential to affect the treatment, without realizing what is good for the patient or actually required. In difficult circumstances, while treating diseases with naturally poor prognosis, they can be still held responsible for the situations beyond their control. Doctors can be harassed for just being in a peculiar situation and for being the only one on the bedside of patient. Everyone wants some human factor to blame for the loss, which was at the best God’s wish in real sense.
While treating emergencies patients, there is an eternal latent vulnerability that is intrinsic in the way doctors’ work, which turns more evil, just because of an unexpected poor outcome. Due to misfortune of the patient, the randomness of the tragic tale imposed on the doctor becomes difficult to fathom.
No one can forget the dreadful times of Covid pandemic and the sacrifice of doctors. There was severe scarcity of beds, drugs, and even oxygen, a scary situation no one even imagined. There was no one inside Covid ICU’s, none of the relatives to support their patients, except doctors and nurses.
A patient who comes with 60 % saturation level of oxygen, but wants Remdesivir to be administered. His wish to get administered Remdesivir is taken as a legal contract between doctor and patient. Without realizing that in such situations administration of oxygen was lifesaving but Remdesivir was not. Doctors know the fact but patients are commonly misguided by the media reports. Patients insisting upon Remdesivir, that was not available. But could the doctor refer the patient to some other hospital with 60% saturation- especially in those uncertain times-taking that risk was not a feasible option. What would an average doctor have done? Only option was to manage the dangerous and precariously low oxygen levels. That is a standard medical teaching in critical situations. All drugs are of secondary importance. In this case, as proved by later studies – role of Remdesivir turned out to be doubtful, but oxygen was proved to be of real help.
But patients precondition for admission was to get Remdesivir, a false belief generated more by media than scientific evidence. A false belief hence generated by media gave Remdesivir the status of a panacea and lot of money to the company, who sold it.
But medicolegal compulsions stamped the administration of Remdesivir as a contract between doctor and patient. A contract that needed to be fulfilled, akin to that of constructing a building. But it is actually different to treat critical human ailments from constructing a building. They cannot be treated merely by wish of the patient. Unfortunately, Remdesivir was not available and all the blame for death was conveniently loaded on the treating doctor.
Doctors’ dilemma in present era is generated by conflicting solutions given by medicolegal implications and principles of medical science. Needless to say, doctors will have adopt to defensive practice to save themselves from medico-legal harassments. For example in this case, doctor could have sent patient to some other hospital (in sick condition), according to patients’ wish for Remdesivir. But would that have been a right decision from medical point of view. But legally it would have been safer for doctors.
In other words- the blame -patient didn’t die of Covid-19 but because of lack of Remdesivir. What a sad conclusion for doctors? Non-availability of drugs is not doctors’fault.
To save themselves from such medico-legal predicaments, aspiring doctors needs to think whether they should put themselves in such a situation akin to catching a falling knife.
NOIDA: Five doctors of a private hospital have been booked under IPC Section 304A (causing death by negligence) in an FIR filed on the recommendation from the health department, whose preliminary inquiry found merit in allegations of a “delay” in administering remdesivir to a 22- year-old college student who died during the second wave of Covid last year. The management of Yatharth Hospital here rejected the charge, saying its doctors did their best to treat the patient, who was admitted in a critical state in April 2021. They also pointed to a remdesivir shortage at the time, and subsequent research that says the antiviral drug does not help in Covid treatment. A top-ranking official of the Indian Medical Association, meanwhile, stressed the need for a central law to safeguard doctors against such “violent action”. In cases of negligence against doctors, the health department has to verify allegations before a case is registered by police. In December 2021, Pradeep Sharma had told UP’s Pandemic Public Redressal Committee that his son Deepanshu (22) was not given the remdesivir injection on the first day of his admission to Yatharth Hospital in Sector 110 on April 30. This was despite the family having paid for the treatment, Sharma, a resident of Vijay Nagar in Ghaziabad, alleged. The committee forwarded the complaint to the health department in January 2022. “The preliminary inquiry has found negligence on part of the doctors as a delay was made in administering remdesivir injection to the patient,” the deputy CMO said in the inquiry report. Police said they would now be able to take up the case for investigation. The hospital administration defended its doctors and their line of treatment. “Deepanshu Sharma was brought to us with severe illness. His oxygen saturation was just around 60% and his lungs were affected. During Covid’s second wave, there were a lot of patients and the remdesivir injection was also not easily available. But we managed to arrange the injection for him in 2-3 days and administered it to him,” said Dr Kapil Tyagi, managing director of Yatharth Hospital. Deepanshu was admitted to the hospital for 35 days, after which his family shifted him to a private hospital in Delhi. He died at the facility in June. His father could not be reached for comment on Monday
Treating emergencies and critical patients has become akin to catching a falling knife. There is eternal latent vulnerability that is intrinsic in the way doctors’ work, which turns more evil when exploited by many in the society for the vested benefit- ‘media and celebrities’ to sell their news and shows, by ‘law industry’ and ‘industry’s middlemen’.
Whenever there is an anecdotal episode of adverse event or poor prognosis in hospitals, it is aired by media as an illustration to portray whole medical professionals as dystopian community. By theatrically deriding hard work of doctors, the celebrities grabbed eyeballs to be at the centre stage of health care. What remained invisible to all is the fact that every day in hospitals, thousands of lives are salvaged back from the brink of death.
The real hidden agenda is an attempt to project ‘Reel heroes’ as ‘Real heroes’. By self-appointing themselves as custodian of health of masses, ’the film stars’ and celebrities give true meaning to their work of ‘Acting’, that otherwise was no more than a trifling entertainment. When masses worship them as their true well-wishers, they feature in advertisements to sell tobacco, soft drinks, junk foods and other sweet poisons to public and children.
The intentional unfairness of the criticism is evident, since the delineation of the cleft that separates doctors from the actual overpowering and controlling health industry is not unveiled, ensuring to sustain the prejudice with its dangerous bias towards health care workers.
There is gradual transition of doctor-patient interaction to a business transaction. The pharmaceutical industry, insurance, law industry and administrative machinery remain hidden in the background and have enormously benefitted by the exploitation of doctors and nurses, who have suffered at the front as the face of the ‘veiled and invisible’ colossal medical business.
The evolving system of corporatization and medicine being projected as a purchasable commodity has resulted in an illogical distribution of health care. The resources spent by people in last few days of life, mostly in a futile quest to have few more, are equivalent to thousands of times the food and medicine for the poor, who lose lives for fraction of that expense. Since in this era, medical therapies are perceived as purchasable and patient has become a consumer.
There is persistent fear of getting a raw deal amidst tricks and traits of the law industry, if any doctor has to face a malpractice lawsuit. A brilliant mind gets entangled in a useless clutter and gets engulfed by a strange fear for the imminent misfortune. Just because of an unexpected poor outcome, randomness of the tragic tale imposed on the doctor is difficult to fathom. With element of arbitrariness involved in the medicolegal suits, law industry has got benefitted enormously at the cost of medical profession.
But these utterances against the medical community are not without serious side effects and results in deteriorating doctor-patient relationship. Mistrust resulted in loss of respect for doctors and predisposed them to all types of violence- be it verbal, physical, legal or financial, as if uncountable lives saved every moment in hospitals were of no consequence.
The blame for deficiencies of inept system and poor outcomes of serious diseases was shifted conveniently to doctors, who were unable to retaliate to the powerful media.
Not only such projections shifted and pinpointed the attention to inappropriate issues, but created an unbridgeable gap of trust between doctor and patients. The fear provoked in the patients’ minds would scare patients to seek help from doctors, who they should be trusting.
The sense of gratitude, which doctors deserved from patients, was replaced by the burden of blame. Even a saved life was thought off merely as a duty fulfilled in lieu of some remuneration.
Consequently, more of doctors’ time is being spent on issues, which are assumed to be worrisome but are not, and less time is spent on the issues that really count.
To control the health system, administrators or even legal systems have a tendency to assume that shortcomings in the patient care can be rectified by punishing the doctors and nurses. For doctors, no gain if they succeed thousand times, but agony assured if they fail once?
Choosing medical career or being a doctor has become a struggle in present era. Aspiring doctors need to first think- why they want to be a doctor in such circumstances-enduring all kind of exploitation- from all corners of society?
Unable to give doctors their rightful, there has been an administrators’ wish to enslave medical profession. Arm chair preachers would just say “yes, as a doctor, they should do it as moral duty.” In a new era of consumerism, when patient is defined as consumer and medical industry controls medical profession and the financial boundaries. All components of medical industry want their pound of flesh from hard work of doctors and nurses. Every day routine issues turning into medico-legal hassles have put doctors in the corner, resulting in severe distraction from real point of intention-treatment of patients.
Struggling to get admission in medical college, slogging in wards to learn and earn degrees, work in inhuman conditions, listen to endless abuses, tolerate the false media criticism, dragged in courts for alleged negligence, work with fear of physical assaults, work without proper infrastructure and manpower, endangering their own lives, exploited by medical industry and administrators, poorly paid and still not respected.
The Myth of cost of spending on medical education needs to be made transparent.
Instead of often repeated statements about high expense on running medical college and projecting it as a hard fact, the amount spent on medical students by all medical colleges should be made transparent by all institutions. The frequent statement is made that cost of making a doctor is very high and gleefully propagated by the private medical colleges to extract millions out of young medical students .
Such statements without any actual public data is repeated to the extent that it is firmly entrenched in public mind without any real evidence.
Projection of high cost of making a doctor is the reason with an intention to exploit the young doctors in various ways to get cheap labour and extract millions from aspiring doctors by medical colleges.
MBBS medical students protest against Haryana Govt bond policy detained
In a crackdown on MBBS students protesting against Haryana government’s bond policy for government medical colleges, the Rohtak Police detained around 300 students in the early hours of Saturday and registered a First Information Report in this connection.
The police action came ahead of the visit of Governor, Chief Minister and Home Minister to PGI campus for the convocation of Pt. Bhagwat Dayal Sharma University of Health Sciences, Rohtak.
He added that the students were now co-operating with the administration and a meeting was being facilitated between them and the Chief Minister soon after the convocation.
The Haryana government had come out with a policy to incentivise doctors to opt for government service in the State on November 6, 2020, saying that the candidates selected for MBBS degree course in government medical colleges need to execute an annual bond for ₹10 lakh minus the fee at the start of every academic year. The candidate can pay the entire bond amount without recourse to the loan or the State government will facilitate them for availing an education loan for this bond amount. As per the policy, the government will repay the annual instalments of the loan if the candidate obtains employment with the State government.
However, in view of the protests, the CM had three days ago announced that students need not pay the ₹10 lakh bond amount at the time of admission, but instead have to sign a bond-cum-loan agreement of the amount with the college and the bank.
Dr Raj Bahadur, the vice-chancellor of Baba Farid University of Health Sciences (BFUHS) in the state’s Faridkot district Punjab, submitted his resignation to the Chief Minister’s Office late on the night of Friday, July 29. He has resigned after state health minister allegedly forced him to lie on a dirty mattress at a hospital.
Administrators, who have never treated a patient in their lifetimes, not only try to control treatment of thousands of patients, but project themselves messiah by demonizing doctors. Lowly educated celebrities and administrators have found a new easy way to project themselves on higher pedestrian by publically insulting highly educated but vulnerable doctors. The biggest tragedy to the medical profession in the present era is the new fad of administrators to discourage and demonize the medical profession for their popularity gains. Being so distant from the ground reality, their role should not have been more than facilitators, but they have become medical administrators. To control the health system, administrators have a tendency to pretend that shortcomings in the patient care can be rectified by punishing the doctors and nurses. Such vulnerability to insult is intrinsic to the doctors’ work, makes them sitting ducks, an easy target for harassment and punishments, if administrators wishes to do so. This vulnerability is exploited by everyone to their advantage. Administrators use this vulnerability to supress them. It is used by media and celebrities who projected themselves as Messiah for the cause of patients, and sell their news and shows by labelling the whole community of doctors as king of fleece tragedy based on just one stray incident.
The painful incident of Dr Raj Bahadur’s humiliation unmasks the everyday struggle of the doctors in the present era. His resignation after the public insult depicts the plight of doctors – being undervalued and demonized by administrators, forced to work as a sub-servant to bureaucrats, irresponsible policing, blackmail by goons and vulture journalism-all have become an accepted form of harassment. The incident has unveiled the despondency, moral burden of mistrust that doctors carry.
Sadly, the society is unable to realize its loss.
Bullied by administrative systems, indifference of Government and venomous media has made it impossible for health care workers to work in a peaceful environment. Is there any punishment for the administrators for mismanagement or poor infrastructure or lack of funds? Looks impossible but punishment to the sufferers is on the cards.
Medical students or aspiring doctors should be carefully watching the behaviour and cruelty by which doctors are governed, regulated and treated by administrators. Mere few words of respect and false lip service during Covid-pandemic should not mask the real face of administrators, indifference of courts and harshness of Government towards medical profession. Choosing medical careers can land anyone into the situations, which are unimaginable in a civilized world. Role of doctor associations, parent institutes has remained more or less weak, spineless and not encouraging.
Hence by selective projection the blame for deficiencies of inept system, powerful industry, inadequate infrastructure and poor outcomes of serious diseases is shifted conveniently to doctors, who are unable to retaliate to the powerful media machinery.
New Delhi: The vice-chancellor of a medical college in Punjab has resigned after state health minister allegedly forced him to lie on a dirty mattress at a hospital.
Hours earlier state health minister Chetan Singh Jouramajra had asked him to lie down on a dirty mattress during an inspection of Faridkot’s Guru Gobind Singh Medical College and Hospital, which comes under the BFUHS.
A video clip of the incident that circulated on the social media, showed Jouramajra place a hand on the veteran surgeon’s shoulder as he pointed towards the “damaged and dirty condition” of the mattress inside the hospital’s skin department.
The minister then allegedly forced Bahadur to lie down on the same mattress.
Though the vice-chancellor himself did not confirm his resignation, highly placed sources in the health department confirmed the same to multiple outlets. When approached for comments, reports that The Tribune Bahadur said, “I have expressed my anguish to the Chief Minister and said I felt humiliated.”
Reports have it that chief minister Bhagwant Mann has expressed his displeasure over the incident and spoken to Jouramajra. Mann has also asked Bahadur to meet him next week.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Bahadur additionally said: “I have worked in 12-13 hospitals so far but have never faced such behaviour from anyone till now. I shouldn’t have been treated this way… it affects this noble profession. It is very painful. He showed his temperament, I showed my humility.”
Bahadur is a specialist in spinal surgery and joint replacement and a former director-principal of Government Medical College and Hospital in Chandigarh. He has also been the head of the orthopaedic department at PGIMER, Chandigarh.
Asked whether new mattresses had been ordered for the hospital, he said: “Two firms sent their quotations and the rate finalisation needs to be done. It is a 1,100-bed hospital and not all mattresses are in bad condition. This mattress shouldn’t have been there but hospital management is the prerogative of the Medical Superintendent.”
Speaking to reporters at the hospital, Jouramajra said: “My intention was not to do any inspection. In fact, I am visiting various hospitals to see what the requirements are so that we can fulfil them.”
Various quarters, including the Indian Medical Association, have criticised Jouramajra.
PCMS Association, a doctors’ body in Punjab, to, in a statement, strongly condemned the “unceremonious treatment” meted out to Bahadur. PCMSA said the way the V-C was treated was “deplorable”, its reason notwithstanding.
The body expressed its “deep resentment” over the incident and said “public shaming of a senior doctor on systemic issues is strongly condemn-able.”
Nachman Ash rails at ‘atmosphere that permits blood[shed] of healthcare providers’; nurses’ union announces it will join work slowdown
Violence against doctors has become a serious issue across the globe. The underlying basic reason for the omnipresent malaise is the altered doctor-patient equation globally and growing mistrust in the saviours. The mistrust is propagated by opportunist medical industry, media and law industry for their selfish motives as doctors are shown as front men for the failures. Poor outcomes are projected because of medical errors and mistakes. Every death is thought to be because of negligence rather than a natural complication of the disease. Because of the instigation and poor law enforcement in favour of doctors, the response of lay public to these unfortunate incidents has become extremely erratic and out of proportion. As Governments remain more or less indifferent, and doctors have become punching bags for inept health systems. Law industry has been enormously benefitted financially due to medico-legal cases against doctors. Media has sold their news items not by good ground work, but by sensationalizing and mischaracterizing the real basic issues, airing one single incident as generalizations. An atmosphere of mistrust has been generated against medical profession. Administrators and Industry have put themselves on higher pedestrian by selectively projecting the genuine failures and mistakes of doctors. There is a little token action by police after routine incident of violence against doctors.
Consequently violence (legal, verbal or physical) against doctor has acquired an epidemic proportion, omnipresent world-wide. As a result, medical business has thrived whereas medical profession is suffocated and art of medicine has been dying a slow gradual death.
But in Israel, doctors, nurses and health care workers seem to be united against this menace and their associations are actively pursuing the issue. More-over the Government also seem to be sensitive to the issue in Israel.
Health Ministry Director-General Nachman Ash on Wednesday sharply criticized the ongoing violence against healthcare providers, a day after a doctor was badly beaten by a patient at a community clinic.“It’s a general atmosphere that permits the blood[shed] of healthcare providers and for no reason,” Ash told the Ynet news site. “A doctor was busy and couldn’t see a patient so he broke into a room with an iron bar and hit her on repeatedly on the head and other parts of her body.
“I talked to the doctor and I understand that it was very fortunate that it ended the way it did [and wasn’t worse],” he said.
“It’s just shocking, and this violent discourse and behavior must be stopped.”
Ash also linked repeated incidents of violence against healthcare providers to anti-vaccine discourse that became prevalent during the coronavirus pandemic. “The connection exists because any discourse that encourages violence ultimately also leads to violence. These are two things that until now we did not want to link,” Ash said. “The violence toward [officials] is one matter and this violence toward healthcare providers is a second issue. But everything is connected.”
A number of top officials and doctors have faced verbal abuse and threats from anti-vaccine activists. Most notably, Dr. Sharon Alroy-Preis, the Health Ministry’s head of public services and a top COVID adviser to the government, has been repeatedly threatened by anti-vaccine activists and conspiracy theorists who view her as the public face of the health system’s inoculation effort. Ash noted that while there were newly announced plans to station police at hospitals, community clinics were more of an issue.
“It really is a much bigger challenge. I want to say that having police in hospitals will not solve everything either. It is impossible to put a police officer in every clinic — that is clear. I believe that punishment is the key, to create deterrence,” AAsh’s comments came as the suspect in Tuesday’s attack on a doctor in the central city of Be’er Yaakov appeared in court on Wednesday for a remand hearing. Police were seeking to charge him with attempted murder.
According to the Kan public broadcaster, the court was told that the suspect is alleged to have attacked the doctor with a meat tenderizer.According to police, the suspect, a resident of the town in his 30s, went to the clinic for medical treatment. While at the clinic he began to behave wildly. He refused to leave when asked by the doctor to do so, and instead grabbed a weapon and hit her on the head.
The doctor was moderately wounded and taken to a nearby hospital for further treatment. The man was apprehended by police shortly afterwards.Tuesday’s attack was the latest in a string of acts of violence in hospitals and clinics in recent months. In the wake of the latest attack, the doctor’s union announced staff at public hospitals and clinics will go on a two-day strike to protest violence against medics, by operating on a weekend schedule with reduced services for all of Thursday and Friday.
“We have made it clear over the past year unequivocally that any case of violence will encounter zero tolerance on our part,” the chairman of the Israel Medical Association, Prof. Zion Hagay, said on Tuesday.
“The most recent strike has led to an important government decision to place police in emergency rooms and allocate the necessary manpower, but we must look solely at how things are implemented on the ground. As long as we do not see real action in the immediate term, we will intensify our actions until someone here wakes up and understands that violence in the health system is a real epidemic,” he said. The nurses union said Wednesday that it will be joining the strike.
The upcoming strike is the second initiated by the doctors’ union in recent weeks. A labor action was called last month after family members of a patient who died at a Jerusalem hospital attacked medical staff and caused significant damage to an intensive care unit after they were informed of his death.
![Nachman Ash rails at ‘atmosphere that permits blood[shed] of healthcare providers’; nurses’ union announces it will join work slowdown Violence against doctors has become a serious issue across the globe. The underlying basic reason for the omnipresent malaise is the altered doctor-patient equation globally and growing mistrust in the saviours. The mistrust is propagated by opportunist medical industry, media and law industry for their selfish motives as doctors are shown as front men for the failures. Poor outcomes are projected because of medical errors and mistakes. Every death is thought to be because of negligence rather than a natural complication of the disease. Because of the instigation](https://extinctdoctorgood.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/health-ministry-chief-israel-rails-at-atmosphere-that-permits-blood-shed-of-healthcare-providers-.jpg?w=600)
Evolution of Medical profession-Extinction of good doctors 