Violence at #NMMC HOSPITAL VASHI Mumbai- shame on law and order agencies

Attacks and assaults on doctors appears to be one of the indicators of a lawless and uncivilized society and poor governance. Doctors have become punching bags for all the malaise prevalent in the health system. A failing and inept system, which is unable to provide health to people and security to doctors. The system hides behind their working doctors and presents them as punching bags. The impunity with which attendant easily and brutally assault doctors and vandalize hospitals is really appalling. Similar violent incidents all over should be shameful to law enforcing agencies. Are we a lawless society? More problematic is the government apathy and silence of human right commission and similar organizations.

Unwillingness or failure of government to prevent such attacks on doctors will have deep ramifications on future of medical profession. Silence of authorities, human right commission is really appalling.

Media, celebrities, film stars in spreading the hatred against the medical profession and creating an environment of mistrust is unpardonable, where stray incidents were portrayed as generalization, just to earn money and fame.

Empathy, sympathy, compassion and trust of the doctor towards the patient, will definitely get a hit after these incidents. Everyday the news of assaults on doctors, court cases against doctors, negative projection of the medical profession in the media are viewed by doctor’s community anxiously..

Merely taking some token action and showing protest will not solve the problem. It does not compensate for the damage done to medical profession. Sympathy, compassion and trust of the doctors towards patients will definitely reduce. Who will be the ultimate sufferer, does not need a Einstein brain to predict.

This insecurity or fear of the uncertainty tends to affect the thinking process of doctors and the way they practice medicine or deal with the patients. Many will like to be defensive in practice, or try not to treat very sick patients. Why would someone try complex surgeries, if there is greater risk involved? Few will limit themselves to follow protocols. Going extra mile along with risk, which not everyone will like to take. Many will become health managers or do something else than do active clinical work. Who should risk his life while doing routine work?

Patients might get their revenge for the naturally occurring disease, but they will lose compassion and trust of doctors in the long run. If that is the way to impart justice in this era, doctors will have to find some way to save themselves.

Patient relatives vandalized NMMC Hospital Vashi, Mumbai

Relatives were booked for vandalising the Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) hospital in Vashi following the death of a 50-year-old man. Of the seven, the four men were arrested. The patient, Venkatesh Suryavanshi, a resident of Juhu gaon, was shifted from a private hospital in Koparkhairane to the NMMC hospital on Tuesday afternoon. At the time of admission, Suryavanshi, who had tuberculosis, was in a critical condition and had very low oxygen levels. An antigen test had declared him negative for COVID-19.“At the time of admission, after checking his condition, vitals and the history papers, we had said that his chances of survival are very less. He was admitted to the ICU ward,” Prashant Jawade, medical superintendent, NMMC hospital, said.Suryavanshi died during treatment around 3.45 a.m. on Wednesday. After getting to know about the death, his sons Rupesh (22) and Sandesh (20), along with their friends Pankaj Jadhav (22) and Rohit Namwad (32) entered the ICU ward and started vandalising the department. Three women who followed them assaulted security guard Satish Dere.“I was told that they also carried a few sharp weapons with them. The security guard has received injuries. Our engineers are analysing the damage and finding the losses that we incurred,” Mr. Jawade said. Chief Medical Officer Majur Shaikh and a few other hospital staff were also allegedly attacked.

According to the police, the seven had vandalised three ventilators, one dialysis machine, two fans, one table fan, and two nurse stations.

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October 30, 2020 0

#NEET: Paying Irrational Fee for Medical College Seat: An Unwise Idea

At a time when medical students and even doctors are uncertain whether opting for medical college along with the vulnerability and risk associated with becoming a doctor is worth it or not, some are naive enough to pay millions as fee for medical education and for securing a seat of MBBS.

A famous axiom “as you sow so shall you reap” has an application to health system. One is convinced that industry selling medical college seats has been quite powerful and practically, every technique to sell seats is prevalent to bypass the merit and deny seat to deserving candidates. These meritorious children, who are denied seats could have been good doctors and real custodian for the health of people. But if for some reason, business prevails and government fails to prevent this cruel and corrupt selling of medical seats, an Einstein brain is not required to guess the whole malaise prevalent in health system

Truth cannot remain hidden for long. It has to be realized that getting into medical college is a minuscule component of the process of becoming a good doctor. Once they opt for this profession, the real tough and prolonged battle begins. Quite a few successful candidates may eventually feel that the money spent and the hard work may not be worth it, especially those who may have invested in heavy fees and in debt.

Although the whole effort and huge expenditure to become doctors in this way may be really worthless in today’s scenario, considering the difficult times and vulnerability of medical profession

Paying the irrational fee of medical colleges may be an unwise idea for the candidates, who are not from strong financial backgrounds. But at the same time unfortunately, it may be a compulsion and entrapment for students, who have entered the profession and there is no way forward or fail to get residency.

The government should regulate these fees and also ensure that if a heavy fee is charged, then it should be spent on medical education of students only. It should not take a form of just any another money minting industry to be used for other purposes.

Going by selection criteria of candidates as doctors, if given a choice, by whom a patient will like to get treated? A candidate who scored 20% – 30 % marks or a person getting 60% or 80% marks. NEET eligibility getting lower and candidates getting around 30 % of marks may be able to secure a degree to treat patients. What will be the deciding factor? So in the end, seats remain unfilled and may be a kind of auction, whosoever can pay millions, takes the seat.

Ironically, that strange equation is acceptable in lieu of money paid!

It is ironical that the medical profession is regulated, but medical business or medical education is not. Such business of producing doctors based on their paying capacity should be clearly trounced for the benefit of public. Foundations of healthcare should be on touchstone of merit, ethics and character and not based on business deals.

Therefore meritorious students, especially from average backgrounds, who opt to become doctors feel cheated when they pay massive fee to buy a seat. It is an insult to the very virtue of merit which should have been the sole criteria for these admissions.

It is the people and society, who will be the real sufferers in future. Therefore resentment to such system should come from the society. If the society continues to accept such below par practices, it has to introspect, whether it actually deserves to get good doctors.

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October 25, 2020 1

Dr Deben Dutta Mob Lynching & Murder: Lesson for Doctors

Dr Deben Dutta lynching and murder by mob in Assam last year, was a new low in the current era of deteriorating doctor- patient relationship. In the era, where consumerism was imposed on doctors in most crude form, media and law industry taking advantage of the situation for their benefit. Complexity of medical science has taken a back seat. The consequences and the brunt of resultant negativism were borne by doctors. Dr Deben Dutta was victim of venomous negativism spread by media against doctors in general.

Every incidence of verbal, legal, and physical assault is a trust breaker. It is not only erosion of patient’s trust on doctors but the vice versa is also true. As a rule of nature, as violence increases, compassion decreases. Patients might get their revenge for one stray incident, but they will lose compassion and trust of doctors in the long run. Millions of lives saved everyday by medical professionals were of no consequence.

GUWAHATI: An Assam court on Tuesday awarded death sentence to a tea garden worker and life imprisonment to 24 others in connection with last year’s lynching of a 73-year-old doctor. Dr. Deben Dutta, a senior medical officer of the Teok Tea Estate hospital in Jorhat district, was lynched by a mob on August 31 last year for his alleged delay in treating a worker, Somra Majhi. Dutta was attacked with sharp weapons and he succumbed to his injuries on the way to a hospital. He had served at the tea garden for over four decades. His killing had triggered widespread outrage.

The impunity with which attendant easily and brutally assault doctors is really appalling. Should such incidents be shameful to law enforcing agencies? Are we a lawless society? More problematic is the government apathy and silence of bodies like human right commission.

In this case, at least the culprits have been brought to book and punished by the court. But still the root cause for such gruesome incident is not addressed. The danger for the medical fraternity is still lurking due to many factors. Risk to the doctor not only comes from the infectious diseases, but can be there because of physical and legal assaults. It can be just consequent to venting out emotions of angry relatives, resulting from a natural poor prognosis, but blaming the doctor. Doctors who are universal common link present at the time of death of patients, become victims and punching bag.

There are lessons to be learnt by doctors from such episodes. As patients are turning into consumers, health providers cannot remain simply doctors as before. They need to develop skills to anticipate danger and save themselves. They need to assess their place of work for their own and their family’s safety.

Aspiring doctors should choose this profession carefully and take a well informed decision. Such incidents are warning signs for the young generation, who are oblivious and ignorant to the risks faced by doctors in present era.

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October 23, 2020 0

Moral Dilemma: Should Doctors Stop Work-if unpaid?

From the very beginning of medical career, certain phrases are repeated to doctors and become ingrained in their memory. Be it any circumstances like working without any facilities, poor infrastructure, non-availability of drugs, inhuman duties hours over 48-72 hours or poor pay, the administrators would say, “you are a doctor, it is your moral responsibility.” Slowly doctors will adjust, keep on working and take hardship as part of their life. Armchair preachers and administrators will always remind them of moral duties, but easily forget their own.

Humbled by the nature of profession and blunted retaliation reflexes due to hard training and enormous studies, gradually they become moral slaves to themselves. Enlightened people will understand the situation as attaining higher level of hierarchy.

All the problems are taken as part of “Routine Life of a Doctor.” The long Struggle to become a doctor, 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.

As doctors have not retaliated to deterioration, adapted well to the slavery, situation is worsening. A large hospital has not paid salaries to doctors for three months. Now there is a moral dilemma for doctors: whether to continue work or not?

Till society understands the concealed sense of enslavement that remains hidden, while performing these duties, the suffering of the profession will not end. A problem that is clearly visible to every one, but not admitted till now, is in itself an evidence for a difficult scenario to be implemented.

Apart from moral dilemma, doctors will worry about legal implications. In present era, amid maze of legal complexities, dilemmas are unending. Among all such complexities, they have to worry about patients also.

A strange situation, where thousands are being paid sitting at home, The real warriors are unpaid. Covid paradox: salary cut for doctors other paid at home

The resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital: indefinite strike from October 5 considering strictly ‘no pay no work’

NEW DELHI: The resident doctors of Hindu Rao Hospital, the biggest medical facility under the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, will be staging an agitation against the administration due to their failure of paying the salaries of the healthcare workers over the past three months, said the president of the doctor’s body Abhimanyu Sardana.

The RDA of the hospital, which is also a dedicated Covid-19 facility, has decided to go on an indefinite strike from October 5 considering strictly ‘no pay no work’. However, essential services won’t be affected.

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October 5, 2020 0

How to choose medical specialty? Variation of doctor salary, earning & important factors

Choosing a medical specialty is possibly one of the most important variable factor in doctor’s life. This one factor will decide the rest of the life of the doctor. General rough guide to the factors involved, which persist forever and throughout the life, after a doctor chooses a specialty is given below. There can be individual variation depending upon the individual attitudes, compromises and way to do practice. Therefore there will be some variation in all the fields for individuals, places, systems and countries.

There can be extremes and variations on either side of spectrum, but are exceptions. Following article does not include satisfaction and earning gained from other businesses done by doctors, running nursing home or hospitals, commercial gains from pharmaceuticals etc. this is on basis of income purely from professional work of treating patients.

Factors—

Earning
Prolonged tough training
Satisfaction of treating patients
Satisfaction of making diagnosis
Emergency & odd hour duty
Stress of life and death
Legal complexity and stress

The Unit—-Single * or (I) is one unit. With experience and years of work , this unit (for same doctor) will also multiply with age.

UNIT

India ( * or 1) is 1 million rupees/annum

Advanced countries- (* or 1)== one lac or 100,000 dollars/ annum

General practice
1. Earning	to * 2-3
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	**
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	**
Internal medicine
1. Earning	to** 2-4
2.. Prolonged tough training	to*
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	***
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	***

cardiology
1. Earning	to***** 2-7
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	****

gastroenterology
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	***
7. Legal complexity and stress	**

Neurology
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	****
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	*** 3

Nephrology
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	***
6. Stress of life and death	***
7. Legal complexity and stress	*** 3

Pulmonary medicine
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	***
7. Legal complexity and stress	*** 3

Emergency Medicine
1. Earning	to** 2-4
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	****
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

Anaesthesia
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	**
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	**
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4
Endocrinology
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2
Psychiatry
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	*
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2

paediatrics
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	***
6. Stress of life and death	***
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

Critical care
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	****
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

Paediatric critical care
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

General Surgery
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

Minimal access surgery
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	***
7. Legal complexity and stress	*** 3

Cardiac surgery- CTVS
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

Urology
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	*** 3

Gastro-surgery
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	***
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

Neurosurgery
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	****
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	**** 4

Head and Neck surgery
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	**
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	***
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	*** 3

Orthopaedics
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	***
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	*** 3

Ophthalmology
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	*
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2

Radiology
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	*
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	****
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	*
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2
ENT
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	**
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	*
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2

Dermatology
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	*
6. Stress of life and death	*
7. Legal complexity and stress	* 1

Gynaecology/obstetrics
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	**
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	****
6. Stress of life and death	****
7. Legal complexity and stress	****

Plastic Surgery
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	*
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	*
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2

Oncology
1. Earning	to*** 2-5
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	***
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2

Onco-surgery
1. Earning	to**** 2-6
2.. Prolonged tough training	***
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	***
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	**
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	**
6. Stress of life and death	**
7. Legal complexity and stress	** 2

Anatomy
1. Earning	to* 2-3
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	Nil
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	Nil
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	Nil
6. Stress of life and death	Nil
7. Legal complexity and stress	Nil

Physiology
1. Earning	to*
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	Nil
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	Nil
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	Nil
6. Stress of life and death	Nil
7. Legal complexity and stress	Nil

Biochemistry
1. Earning	to* 2-3
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	Nil
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	Nil
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	Nil
6. Stress of life and death	Nil
7. Legal complexity and stress	Nil

Microbiology
1. Earning	to** 2-4
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	0 to*
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	**
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	*
6. Stress of life and death	Nil
7. Legal complexity and stress	*

Pathology
1. Earning	to ** 2-4
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	NIl
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	****
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	*
6. Stress of life and death	Nil
7. Legal complexity and stress	*

Medical administrator/Manager
1. Earning	to****** 2-8 sometimes multiple
2.. Prolonged tough training	**
3.. Satisfaction of treating patients	Nil
4. Satisfaction of making diagnosis	Nil
5. Emergency & odd hour duty	*
6. Stress of life and death	Nil
7. Legal complexity and stress	*

. There can be extremes and variations on either side of spectrum, but are exceptions.

If the reader have some different view, or want to add something, they are welcome to write in comments. This table just highlights a trend of factors and may not be perfect. But it gives the factors which need to be taken into account, before choosing specialty.

March 22, 2019 1

Expensive medical education ? Future may be “free medical education”: NYU offers free education for all its medical students

At a time when students, parents and even doctors are uncertain whether opting for medical college along with the vulnerability and risk associated with becoming a doctor is worth it or not, some are naive enough to pay millions as fee for medical education and for securing a seat of MBBS.

Although the whole effort and huge expenditure to become doctors in this way may be really worthless in today’s scenario, considering the difficult times and vulnerability of medical profession

Paying the irrational fee of medical colleges may be an unwise idea for the candidates, who are not from strong financial backgrounds. But at the same time unfortunately, it may be a compulsion and entrapment for students, who have entered the profession and there is no way forward or fail to get residency.

The New York University School of Medicine will provide free tuition for all present and future students, the university announced.

Citing the risk of “overwhelming” debt, it says every student will qualify regardless of merit or financial need. NYU said financial worries were driving graduates to more lucrative specialities, pushing doctors away from more general positions. The scholarship covers annual tuition costs of up to $55,000 (£43,000). A study produced by the Association of American Medical Colleges estimated that in 2017 75% of medical students graduated in debt. The university has reportedly been working for more than a decade to accrue the necessary funds to pay for tuition, and hopes to raise a total of $600 million (£472m) to make the scholarships available permanently. NYU School of Medicine made the surprise announcement at its annual White Coat Ceremony on Thursday – when new students receive a white lab coat as they begin their studies. In their statement, the university said debt is “fundamentally reshaping the medical profession in ways that are adversely affecting healthcare”.Graduates move towards higher-paying areas of medicine over paediatrics, primary care or gynaecology due to their “staggering student loans”. Aspiring physicians and surgeons should not be prevented from pursuing a career in medicine because of the prospect of overwhelming financial debt”. Robert Grossman, dean of the medical school and chief executive officer of NYU Langone Health, said: “This decision recognises a moral imperative that must be addressed, as institutions place an increasing debt burden on young people who aspire to become physicians.”To date, only a handful of institutions have tried to make medical education tuition-free, according to Julie Fresne, senior director of student financial services of the Association of American Medical Colleges, a nonprofit organisation that represents medical schools. At UCLA’s David Geffen School of Medicine, a $100m (£79m) fund announced several years ago pays for the entire cost of medical school for all four years, including tuition, fees, books and living expenses for about 20 per cent of its students. But that program is based on merit, not need.

Meanwhile, a small medical school affiliated with Case Western Reserve University at the Cleveland Clinic covers the tuition and fees for its five-year programme focusing on research. Most of the roughly 20,000 students per year enrolled in US medical schools take out sizeable federal loans to support their studies. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges, in 2017, the median debt for graduating medical students was $192,000 (£151,000).The median cost of medical school attendance, including living expenses, was $60,945 (£47,906) a year for public medical school and $82,278 (£64,675) for private medical school.

This may be a indicator of the future days to come, the need for medical education to be cheap or made free, to encourage young generation to become doctors. Society has the choice to encourage and nurture good doctor for itself or discourage them by financial exploitation and subjecting them to debt trap. NYU has wisely decided on its choice.

August 22, 2018 1

Doctors need genuine Leave – painful barb for others @ Tokyo medical school

Japan medical school admits to altering scores to keep out female applicants

Usually the kind of work of doctors keep them on toes and it is difficult to have leaves. This may be a global phenomenon. Medical systems also are not very comfortable with doctor’s leaves. Scarcity of doctors and difficult replacements makes life of doctors busy and unsocial. Systematic denial of genuine leave has been proved by investigations at Tokyo medical school.

A Tokyo medical school has confirmed after an internal investigation that it systematically altered entrance exam scores for years to keep out female applicants and ensure more men became doctors. The school wanted fewer female doctors because it anticipated they would become mothers and would shorten or halt their careers. It is extremely important to improve the working environment so that women can pursue their medical professions. School’s purpose in denying women entry was because female doctors often quit working after starting families. Women tend to avoid tough jobs like surgery or work in remote areas. They need to take a break from their careers because of pregnancy and childbirth.

Tokyo Medical University manipulated all entrance tests results since 2000 or even earlier. The findings released Tuesday by lawyers involved in the internal investigation confirm recent reports in Japanese media.

The manipulation surfaced during an investigation of an alleged wrongful admission of a bureaucrat’s son.

The internal investigation found the school first reduced all applicants’ first-stage scores to 80 percent then added up to 20 points only to male applicants with three or fewer application tries.

The school wanted fewer female doctors because it anticipated they would become mothers and would shorten or halt their careers.

Japan’s government urged a medical university to promptly disclose the results of an investigation into its admissions process Friday after reports alleged it had altered the test scores of female applicants for years to deny them entry and ensure fewer women became doctors.

The school’s public affairs department said it had no knowledge of the reported manipulation but is investigating. The school is already facing a separate scandal involving the inappropriate admission of a top education bureaucrat’s son and was ordered by the education ministry to investigate its admissions records for the past six years. On Thursday, the school said it will combine the examination of the score manipulation allegation with that probe.

The share of female doctors who have passed the national medical exam has stayed at around 30 percent for more than 20 years, prompting speculation that interference in admissions is widespread at Japanese medical schools.

The Japanese medical university’s alleged systematic deduction of entrance exam scores only from female applicants has sparked outrage across Japan. It was reported Thursday that Tokyo Medical University has been slashing female applicants’ entrance exam scores for years to keep female student population low, on grounds they tend to quit as doctors after starting families, causing staffing shortages

Admissions records released to The Associated Press by the school show the percentage of women who passed the entrance exam rose from 24 percent in 2009 to 38 percent in 2010. The figure has since stayed below that level until decreasing to 18 percent this year, when a total of 171 students passed the exam. The ratio of female applicants who were accepted this year was 2.9 percent, compared to 8.8 percent for men.

August 13, 2018 0

Expensive dream or a disaster self bought: Pay millions to be a doctor (#NEET)

Reluctance of candidates to wrap up expensive medical college seats is just an indicator of aspiring medical student’s better understanding of the cruel reality about medical education. Becoming a doctor is not easy these days. Paying crores is like getting into a trouble zone and getting yourself entrapped into a system of exploitation. It may be alright for candidates who are from rich backgrounds. But for the candidates whose families are not strong financially, it may be self bought disaster. Steep rise in fee of medical colleges has been huge, beyond logic and is injustice to the meritorious. One advantage of inappropriate media bashing of doctors, recent assaults against doctors has given some wisdom to innocent students, who used to just enter into a system of entrapment unknowingly. Choosing medical career and then trying to place your feet into post graduation, spending crores in all these situations is akin to falling victim to a system of entrapment. Some one paying for it in millions and crores is an absurd thought and highly ill advised. For the candidates who are not financially strong, it may be difficult to even recover the money spent, what to say about the time and youth wasted in getting a degree which may or may not be that worth.

Therefore it may become dream turning into nightmare for the people who can not afford. Lower merits combined with not so good medical colleges may produce thousands of degree holders but not good doctors. Recent sporadic campaign of stray cases projected as generalization by media has definitely diminished respect for profession. Individually most of the doctors may be working hard honestly but they are uniformly painted in the same colours due to misplaced priorities of the media. Society has already developed a prejudiced mind towards doctors. Since these projections are created by outside agencies, doctors even with hard work and doing work honestly may not be able to change the perception that has been created. Damage to profession has been immense and it is nearly impossible task to reverse the mistrust generated and undo the damage. If individually doctors are doing good and media continues the negative projection, the sad situation will persist. All efforts by doctors in this direction are like oil on the sand.

In nutshell, this toil and trouble for years, buying a seat, paying millions or crores and becoming a doctor does not save you from vulnerability of court cases and wrath of public. Rather suboptimal training and capabilities makes them more vulnerable to problems. It may be alright if some one with strong financial background decides to be a health manager or administrator.

Real problem of mediocrity remains as such. Candidates with higher merit will be left behind as candidates who can buy and pay more will get in. This process will be called as “lawful selection” along with diluted merit .This process makes count number of degrees distributed under various conditions attached to it other than merit. But just number of degrees will not provide better doctors for future.

June 14, 2018 0

“NEET – NOT So NEAT” : Courtesy switch to Percentile system?

Govt cuts NEET-PG cutoff by 15 percentile In a move that is likely to boost uptake in vacant post-graduate medical seats and also improve availability of specialists in future, the health ministry has slashed the cutoff for NEET-PG 2021 by 15 percentile across all categories. The ministry issued a letter to the National Medical Commission on Saturday giving a go-ahead to the proposal. The revised qualifying cutoff now stands at 35 percentile for the general category, 30 percentile for persons with disabilities (PwD) general, 25 for SC/ST and OBC and 25 for PwD (SC/ST/OBC), the letter said. The reduction in the cut off percentile is expected to allow more MBBS passouts to apply for post-graduate courses, an official said. “The move aims to prevent seat wastage. With this reduction in percentile, approximately 25

Imagine, an opportunity is available to a patient, to decide the doctor as based on his route or marks for entry into medical college. Whether patient will like to get treated by a doctor, who secured 20% marks, 30 % marks or 60% marks or 80% marks for medical college. Even an illiterate person can answer that well. But strangely for selection of doctors, rules were framed so as to dilute the merit to the minimum possible. So that a candidate who scores 20 -25 % marks also becomes eligible to become a doctor. What is the need to dilute and shortlist around half a million for few thousand seats. Answer to that is simple. To select and find only those students from millions, who can pay millions to become doctors.

Although the whole effort and huge expenditure to become doctors in this way may be really worthless in today’s scenario, considering the difficult times and vulnerability of medical profession. By allowing a intentional dilution of quality can be advantageous only to few and detrimental to others.

Beneficiaries are rich candidates, medical colleges who collecting fee and may be public who will get numbers of doctors. Surplus of doctors is thought to be an advantage to society. But here quality is least of the consideration.
Disadvantage to students, who are meritorious but can’t pay, and possibly society in long run, who is deprived of good quality doctors.

A lower eligibility cut-off would mean that students with even lower percentage of marks will be eligible for MBBS
Last year, 11,114 students who scored 270 or less out of 720 got admission into medical colleges, mostly in private colleges
By the percentile system, last year, a student scoring 270 was within the 80th percentile

NEW DELHI: The results of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) for MBBS admissions for 2018 announced on Monday showed even lower cut-offs than last year. The cut-off for the unreserved category is down from 131 out of 720 marks last year to 119 this year, while the one for the reserved categories has dropped by a similar margin from 107 to 96. Over 7 lakh students from the 13 lakh plus who appeared for the exam have qualified to join medical college.

A lower eligibility cut-off for NEET would mean that students with even lower percentage of marks will be eligible to get admission for MBBS. In case you thought just being eligible would not allow those with poor scores to get admission, here’s what happened last year. Over 4,300 students who scored 180 or less in NEET actually got admission to MBBS. The overwhelming majority of them in private colleges, where high fees make it difficult for those with meagre means to join even if they have the marks.

A score of 180 out of 720 is the minimum mark a student would get if they got 40% of the answers right, even if they got all the rest wrong, with the negative marking scheme in place in NEET. Of course, 40% is the pass percentage in most exams. In terms of percentage, 180 out of 720 is a mere 25%. But going by the percentile system of NEET, 180 in 2017 meant the student was within the 64th percentile, well above the 50th percentile cut-off for the unreserved category.

Last year, 11,114 students who scored 270 or less out of 720 got admission into medical colleges, once again mostly in private colleges. If a student got half the answers right, he could not have got less than 270. Before NEET, the minimum eligibility criteria for MBBS admission was 50% through various entrance exams though the quality of some of the exams conducted by colleges themselves was dubious. By the percentile system, last year, a student scoring 270 was within the 80th percentile.
Incidentally, because there are no cut-offs specified for individual subjects within NEET, there were several cases last year of people who qualified and got admission into medical colleges with scores of zero or even negative marks in chemistry or physics. With the cut-offs dropping further this year in terms of percentage marks (though remaining the same in percentile terms), chances are we will see a repeat of worse this year.

If the society continues to accept such below par practices, it has to introspect, whether it actually deserves to get good doctors. Paying the irrational fee of medical colleges may be unwise idea for the candidates, who are not from strong financial backgrounds. But at the same time unfortunately, it may be a compulsion and entrapment for students, who have entered the profession and there is no way forward. So children have to be careful while choosing medical careers from the beginning.

A famous axiom “as you sow so shall you reap” has an application to health system in this scenario, so people should not rue scarcity of good doctors.

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June 5, 2018 33

Aberrant Evolution of medical profession: will it help the patient?

With advances in medical science, simultaneously there has been aberrant evolution of medical profession, education, regulation and medical industry. By provoking controversy about doctors for varied reasons, medical industry and law has been positioned between the doctor and patient and taken a center stage in health care. Till now, doctor patient interaction was the central point of the health industry, a core around which medical industry revolved. But now this interaction, treatment and almost everything is controlled by industry and regulated in some manner. There have been technical advancements to promote better treatment and diagnosis but these, at the same time, increase the cost of treatment, involvement of industry and hence dependence on investors.

There has been advancements, but are they in right direction?

Discouragement of medical fraternity: The adage “To err is human” probably does not apply to the doctors anymore. Doctors are definitely regarded different from rest of the humans and are not supposed to have privileges that other persons of humankind are guaranteed. Hence they are harassed often for any adverse clinical outcome even though it may be because of poor prognosis of patient. They work under continuous fear and stress and are punished for each small or big error.

Commercial evolution of medical education: medical student are now forced to pay exorbitant fee with lower standards of education.

Evolution in medico legal procedures: extensive and complex communication, technical advancements and legal interactions has taken a toll on the doctors. But more importantly, how that has improved the patient care or doctor patient relationship? I feel, it has created fear in mind of doctors and deterioration of doctor patient relationship.

Evlution of Doctor patient relationship and Trust :In all the complexity, trust between doctor patient has taken a hit. A good paternistic relationship, now has been converted to more of a legal one. Trust has been replaced by mutual fear.

Evolution of Complex medical regulation and documentation: There has been overzealous regulation of medical profession. Time and resouces which should have been utilized for treatment of patients, has to be used for complex documentation.

Evolution of media and social media: Painful retrospective analysis of work of doctor by media, courts and public contuse. Decisions which doctors has to take in moments are analysed retrospectively by everyone with wisdom of hindsight over years, without understanding complexities involved.

Evolution of Insurance sector: increasing cost of treatment and medicolegal component has made both patients and doctors paying to insurance companies.

This kind of aberrant evolution of medical profession has increased the problems of doctors and patients and it is not helping anyone. Ultimately it will help everyone except doctor and patient. Ultimately discourage the excellence in medical care.

November 16, 2017 0

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