Ethics of Indian Medical Industry
Strange it can be but truth it is.... I am the naked eye witness of it.
Trade of Screams
"Doc! She is in pain, she is
screaming!" Mr. Singh hurled in to the cabin of the doctor panicked and
thrombin.
"Don't worry Mr. Singh; you are
going to get the good news soon!" While walking out of his cabin in way
towards the operation theatre he replied
"Yeah!" he smiles with tears
in eyes and sweat in forehead "I am just afraid! Will she be
fine?"
"Off-course she will, all the
medical reports are normal, she is gonna be a healthy mother soon!" He
patted to Singh's back while a nurse pokes him with a pen and paper.
"What's this?" He is still
panic and just wants to be with his wife for all this crucial moment of their
life
"Nothing...! A formality actually, just a declaration form that
hospital is not responsible for any untoward outcomes!" Nurse
replies
Mr.
Singh is in a fix... he is looking towards his wife in
the stretcher and then to that piece of paper. He is
sweating panicky abnormal...
"Relax Mr. Singh, you are going to be a proud
father... don't think too much" Doc took him into confidence "It is
going to be a normal delivery!"
"Can I stay in the OT with her?" while
signing that oath letter Mr. Singh asks.
After
a strange appearance and a few conversations with the nurse, doctor refuses to
Mr. Singh. His love for his wife is appearing deep in his face along with the
screams of his wife from inside the OT. He is praying, murmuring holy-hymns
while remembering his own parents who are far away from the city he
is living now. For more than an hour, all he can feel is the screams of his
wife... he is getting restless. He had never recited the Gods name so much till
before in his life ever...
In
hurricane rush, a nurse comes out of the OT towards him. He in turn runs towards
nurse to know what happened
"Mr. Singh, your wife is bleeding abnormally
and turning too weak to deliver the baby, you have to go for the surgical
maps!" he is appearing worried and demanding quick consent of
Mr. Singh
He
is unable to understand that why she is out of OT and telling him all that in
spite of doing whatever required and so he asks to which she replies
"A few more formalities are required
for this, you have to sign another declaration letter and pay
Rs.50000/- more..." she drags him towards the billing counter "....
otherwise either baby or the mother may be lost!"
Mr.
Singh cared a damn for 50000/- bucks but after surgical app, his wife took
three weeks to come home and five months to return to healthy life.
In
another case in the same hospital, Mr. Kalra was screaming loud in front of the
dead body of her mother. One of his relatives told me that this hospital duped
Mr. Kalra. As his mother was dead three days ago but doctor kept her in
ventilator so that he can charge Rs.12000/- a day for the services.
In
my subsequent discoveries, I identified that from smaller villages
to peripheral towns of Indore city, some Rural-Medical-Officers, Doctors
and Clinics or Dispensaries (inducing Govt.) and
Super-Specialty Hospitals are networked with Path-Labs/CT Scan/X-Ray and
Pharmaceutical Companies in Pithampur for the trade of poor patient’s pain and
hope.
A
doctor in nearby village of Indore has a multi-speciality clinic. He charges
Rs.20 as a consultation fees and gives a few basic medicines free to
the patients. In less than a year, he owns a Honda City car, A Row-house
and two tours to Singapore and Malaysia! Wondering how? Well, for every
blood, Pathological tests he refers to nearby labs, he gets 30% of the billed
amount, for every CT Scan or X-ray he earns 20% of billed amount and the
medicines other then what he gives for free is available in the selected
medical shops only because those medicines are tailor made in the pharmacy-production
company at Pithampur. To prescribe such medicines he gets 35% of the
billed amount.
Well
story doesn't ends here! Every Multispecialty hospitals have
appointed some 10 plus PRO (public relationship officers). Their job is to go
all nearby villages to contact all the big-small’ doctors and fix their share
of payments for every patient they refer to their respective
hospitals. Big pharmacy Companies are ready to gift a heaven to the Doctors in
the exchange of the prescription of the pills
of their companies.
Medical
Industry, Education System of Indian and Government of India are badly
crooked! There are 85000 Engineering seats in MP but only 1200
Medical seats! Why? Because, Engineers are now becoming the slaves of
big corporate honchos and even a single Doctors can pay 100 times
more bribe then an Engineer! 22 Million of Indian population pushed below
poverty line annually due to healthcare expenditure alone, 40% of
hospitalization expenditure funded by borrowed money or sold asset!
My
Upcoming Research paper titled "Health Care Services Offered to Rural
Patients in Urban Private Hospitals” jointly
authored by Dr. Preeti Sharma, Dr. Shiv Chaudhary and Jitendra Verma, is
an attempt to understand the possibility and feasibility
of Social welfare without compromising the
financial benefits and promoting ethical practices in medical industry of
India.
Comments
@ rahul ..thnx for wake up call