STATE OF MEDICAL PROFESSION
During the Pandemic the Doctors and Paramedics have been hailed as Corona warriors and truly so. Many of the Doctors, I am sure have done tireless work in helping suffering patients.
It is also true that some hospitals overcharged and looted hapless customers during the pandemic time.
An aspect of Medical profession in their behavior of Medical Professional I am not able to come to terms with. May be somebody in the group can enlighten me as to why there is this phenomenon.
Doctors refuse to do home visit even in some genuine cases. For eg. for an aged patient suffering, either in bed, or finding it difficult to walk and come to hospital/clinic, there are no doctors willing to attend to such patients by making a home visit. This is the case at Chennai where I am residing. I have tried several doctors but they avoid rather than attend to the request. Do not the Doctors take some pledge at the time of passing out of Medical degree?. Remember, in the 70s and 80s, there was a concept of family doctor who used to visit home and comfort the patients. This practice has been thrown out of gear by the so called concept of Corporate hospitals. Any detailed examination of a patient taking, say, more than half-hour is viewed as a waste of time by the Doctors. I am willing to accept that Doctors are human beings who need their space and time. But is it not possible to arrive at some balance?. more
It is also true that some hospitals overcharged and looted hapless customers during the pandemic time.
An aspect of Medical profession in their behavior of Medical Professional I am not able to come to terms with. May be somebody in the group can enlighten me as to why there is this phenomenon.
Doctors refuse to do home visit even in some genuine cases. For eg. for an aged patient suffering, either in bed, or finding it difficult to walk and come to hospital/clinic, there are no doctors willing to attend to such patients by making a home visit. This is the case at Chennai where I am residing. I have tried several doctors but they avoid rather than attend to the request. Do not the Doctors take some pledge at the time of passing out of Medical degree?. Remember, in the 70s and 80s, there was a concept of family doctor who used to visit home and comfort the patients. This practice has been thrown out of gear by the so called concept of Corporate hospitals. Any detailed examination of a patient taking, say, more than half-hour is viewed as a waste of time by the Doctors. I am willing to accept that Doctors are human beings who need their space and time. But is it not possible to arrive at some balance?. more
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I do agree with Ranjit. May be all the doctors must be brought under one forum by the government with regulations which may help to a very great extent. more
Dec 22
Its a new development since about a decade or so that the doctors in general refuse to make a home visit despite the fact that a home visit costs minimum double of the doctors' normal consultation fees at their clinics. The reasons are obvious that if a doctor attend a patient at his/home on call, the number of in-dore patients of hospitals will get reduced at least by 50% and with the result many of the hospitals will be left with no option other than downing their shutters and doctors in general have directly or indirectly interests in one or more than one hospital. more
Dec 14
A patients recovery at home should be, in my opinion, much much better than at the hospital. But the sad part is that doctors insist on hospital admission of the patients so as to earn more for themselves and for the hospital. Anyway some of the facilities provided at the hospital are superfluous - not required at all. And anyway they do not come free, for eg. dietician. more
Dec 16
Doctors who do private practice fleece the patients with their exorbitant consulting fees, refuse to come home for needy. This is basically due to the corruption and capitation fees for admission. Again admission to medical college must be free of caste and religion and should be based on merit. Doctors who got addmission by other means will focus only to retrieve money spent. Government must come out rules to address all these issues. more
Dec 13
There are no reasons to accuse the reservation system though I am not a suppoter of this system in any field. My point is that none of the doctors irrespective of their caste and creed are lagging behind in minting money without worrying for the patients' and their families' financial capacity. Even doctors passed out from government medical colleges at nominal cost also want to make easy money without losing time. Of course there are exceptions which could be counted on finger tips. more
Dec 14
CGHS had made a rule for its beneficiary to avail Doctor’s home visit in case of emergency. There was also a rule for super senior patient to get a call or occasional visit from the CGHS doctor to enquire about his health and get the needful done. But, apparently all those facilities are no more in practice. Not only that CGHS doctors have lately stopped offering seats to their patient, including senior citizens who visit them as a patient. CGHS is perhaps the best health scheme of the Central Govt. and so its Doctors are expected to follow the normal norms and set example for others. A few sympathetic words and actions of a Doctor towards his patient play an important part in reducing the agony of the patient. more
Dec 09
Unfortunately there is no law regulating the employees salaries when it is impossible for them to attend to their duties. Those who could work from home, and there were lots of them both in public and private domain, they would get their full salary anyway. Govt. was kind and paid salaries to their employees. Private sector too paid their employees in full or in part and some did not pay at all. Even Govt stopped payment of dearness allowance at the rates that were due on account of economic exigency. Even when the current DA rate was restored the arrears for the past period have specifically been denied to the govt. servants and the pensioners totaling about a crore. Social activists can play a role by prevailing on the legislators to bring a suitable law on the subject. more
Dec 08
