Monday, May 10, 2010

In defence of doctors

Dr Chandana Shekar, our precious friend, has reacted emotionally to the last post. She deserves a pat for presenting her views without anger and as a healthy debate. Thought I should share this as a post as some of you may miss the comments column and these are very interesting points from a doctor’s perspective. Please let us view this only as a debate. Here's what she says:
God cures, we just dress the wound".. thats a popular sayin we all doctors know. god cures for sure. but hey, we dont kill anybody yeah. atleast not the 'doctor' doctors. there are corrupted ones and morons, i agree. but not the majority.

and coming to investigations, well, earlier, investigation modalities and treatment modalities weren so much advanced. a lot of them weren even invented.and mortality n morbidity were high too. nowadays, we have all of it. we infact have- investigation for screening, investigation with best accuracy and investigation of choice for each disease. and we choose teh investigation best suited for that particular patient.
infact, in medical colleges, students are taught how to diagnose n treat a patient just based on history and clinical examination. only in our internship and later on do we actually blend that knowledge with these investigations and stuff.

wat used to happen in ur childhood days was 'primary health care' practice. and what happens now, is corporate. come on, if we don't diagnose something with ur kith n kin just coz u dint wanna go thru investigations, and later if somthing happens to that patient, wud u leave us alone? u wud sue us in court with the consumer system that exists now!! we do give the patient the options for treatment. if they really don want it, they can always sign an 'against medical advice' form n go. that signature is just to guard ourselves in times of sueing
about the cuts, well, thats how the system has gone. but trust me, its not with everybody. i come from a doctors' family. parents, aunts n uncles, cousins, all of them. just one engineer in my family. so i know, honest noble doctors still exist :)

not offended or anything, but felt i ahd to say this. as a doctor, the stand of the medical community goes like this :)
earlier, medical college admissions used to be based on merit. nowadays, with all the private colleges comeing up and the 'NRI quota' and the 'management quotas' that exist, we end up havin doctors who are not fit to be doctors... thats the prob.

okay, i know i wrote too much. just clearin up misconceptions ;) trust me, being a doctor is not an easy job as people assume it to be
@smita- docs dont actually do anytthin for money. trust me, we dont. a few b**** mights, but not all of them

@mingled minds- i so totally agree

@A- physiotherapy is very much needed in an ortho case. what doctors gave u earlier, was a re-assembled limb. what we try to give u now, with physiotherapy and stuff, is a re-assembled limb in its best workin status.

@nituscorner- i totally agree to that
@insginia- u dont need a urine test blood test and ecg for a head ache. if some doctor has done that to u, well,u chose the wrong doctor

26 comments:

  1. Dr. Chandrashekar and Ramesh,

    My comments were specific to one incident and SHALL NOT be used to generalize capabilities or diagnosis/prgnosis skills of doctors or other medical professiona.

    I have strong respect for doctors and medical professionals. They have increaed the quality of life and longevity in general. Most of my friends are doctors here and I am very impressed by their knowledge and skills.

    If you like I can post a story of my doctor friend's dedication and skill to save lives on my blog. Let me know. My email address is

    arealblogger@gmail.com

    My blog address is arealblogger.blogspot.com

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  2. Thanks RR and DR Chandana for presenting the other side

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  3. i hate u. yeah , u heard that right. !!! had u just told me that this is comin up, i wud have written it a lot better. this was just an opinion at that moment. oh god!! i typed it so fast, that i dint even care for spellings or punctuation ( i never do on any comments). god, u na!! atleast u shud have edited the spellings and stuff. i shall catch u one day sure!!

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  4. Oh God, plz edit the spelling mistakes atleast! I've spelt 'coming' as 'comeing'.. lolz.. moron me!! ;)

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  5. There is an urgent need to improve the ratio of qualified medical practitioners to population.
    Increasing the number of quality learning institutes for Medical sciences is the only option to improve the situation. Now only the deep pocketed and those who want to continue legacy are involved in the pursuit of Medical Education.

    A famous cardiologist says that a professional needs to work for 20 years continously putting in 12 to 15 hours per day to become a reputed surgeon!
    I think overworked doctors make steriotypes.. They have hardly any time and incentive to update their knowledge.(barring a few exceptional breeds) Can any one deny that Medical Education in India needs attention and improvement in terms of quality and number of institutes?

    I hope Kapil is looking at this now!

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  6. In every profession we find criminals so sometimes doctors also become criminals.

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  7. boss..
    everybody
    wants to
    go to
    heaven..

    nobody
    wish
    to die!

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  8. There are good and bad people in every profession, Ramesh. Why do I feel that there is a general decline in ethics at a faster rate in medicine? Being parents of two kids, I have been fleeced many times and interacted with many doctors across cities. Dr. Chandana has a right to feel indignant, and she must be one of the good ones. But, the general state prevails,and I am talking about the really good hospitals here.

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  9. baapre...I missed so many action packed posts and comments due to my exams! Ramesh, u r my mumbaiya friend..ek baar bol to dete!

    anyways, chandana is like my little sister and a very good doctor..:)

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  10. @A- i did not say u were offendin us. just gave an explaination to that instance of urs. thanks for all the respect u have for doctors :) we cherish it :) all that gives us satisfaction is the smile and the content feeling that a patient and his attenders have when the patient gets well n goes home. that serves our purpose n that it all we need. the only drive to make us enjoy our ork every single day. well, money that we charge is for our bread n butter. paapi pet ka sawaal, u see ;)

    @subu- "Increasing the number of quality learning institutes for Medical sciences is the only option to improve the situation". very true. Out of 150 students in my batch, only 35 of us were from general merit. all the others were either from reservation or donatioon quota. and when people flunked in first year and went to the repeater batch, none of us from genral merit group flunked. atleast medical education shouldnt have these reservations and stuff. we are gonna handle with life. and diseases and death doesnt occur lookin at the kind of doctor ur going to. reservations dont help there.

    and yeah, we sure are hell overworked. especially the post graduate students!!

    @sm- well, they form the 'b******' group in us u see.

    @arvind- lolz

    @rachna- well, let me clarify one thing. 'good' hospitals shudn mean the ones which look like 5 star hotels. even in my city, there are these corporate hospitals like apollo n columbia asia. but its not that good doctors work there. money rigns more at such places.. there wud sure be good doctors somewhere around, maybe its a rarity though. look for the ones who are good at treatment even if their fee is a bit high. because i know of doctors who charge more, but never compromise with the treatment. n don prescribe unnecessary investigations.
    everythin is life is grey u see. nobodys is either totally white or black.hope u find good doctors for ur kids soon. if u know any doctor friend in the city, ask them for references. they will tell u who is good at 'treatment'.

    @neha di- muah..love ya :)

    thanks for respectin my views all of u. feels honoured

    @bhagyareema- thanks so much :)

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  11. @ramesh- hey i found ur comment on my blog. was on an old post. :) thank u :)

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  12. Hi! Ramesh,

    Was wondering, wats happening around here, so read both posts & comments....a doctors ego is hurt...defenitely leave a doctor, even if its a driver, a honest one will be hurt reading all this, but the truth is for the survival of numerous hospitals & medical colleges(self financial) there is a milking unit in such hospitals....not forgetting about an article i read about a govt doctor, who even takes pain to visit patients at their homes that too in a place where vehicles do not reach...

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  13. I am happy to see Dr. Chandana's comment.There are indeed very doctors around but locating one is the biggest problem these days.

    We had a very good family doctor;- Family doctors earlier were like family members, they knew inside outside of each patient. I have also dedicated a good post on our family doctor at manchitra.wordpress.com - a post on 'of cold and flu'.

    Same way I had an excellent pediatrician for my son who took keen interest in my son's development.

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  14. Hi Ramesh
    Looks like a heavy confrontation here !!!!
    ;)

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  15. lollz.. this is a topic which is never gonna end. coz both black n white exist here. mostly grey.choose the more whiter shade. thats the only way out i guess :)

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  16. Dr Chandra, there is money in every profession. Some people go beyond the money in whichever profession they are. For example Ramesh's job is in publication but he entertains us with wonderful blogs here.

    Same way, I know some of my doctor friends who go far beyond their job to help people - without thinking about money...I am working on this subject and will post the blog. I need to get details from my friend.

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  17. Well,

    I read the comments on previous post before reading this one. Kudos to Dr. Chandana. But yes, please don't take this as a general opinion. I didnt mean in literal sense that I had to get tests done for my 'headache'. It wasnt a headache but fever. As a kid, my fever was just diagnosed by examining my eyes and pulse. But now maybe its so sophisticated that they recommend tests. :-)

    And its each one's view point; and we dont represent any forum. so take it light :-)

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  18. DISCLAIMER: This issue never offended me in any way n i had put down those points just and just and more just as a healthy debate :)

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  19. @A- Im 'chandana'. NOt chandra. and hope to see ur post soon :)

    @Insignia- well, i never got offended. just that i saw the post n thought i need to put down points from the other side. thats it. :) taken it really light sure :)

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  20. after a long spell of 15 years - me went to met my family doctor..
    he just asked "hi.. how are u?"
    me: "just come to visit u doctor..how are u?"
    he: "Christ.. you are the first one to ask a doctor - How are u?"

    after some chats, me just prepared to leaving..
    he with a deep look asked me,"u -DOX (suffix)allergy.. is in did?"

    doctors!

    ps(!)- if treatment are oorporate - then disease too! (don't analsis of - whether egg is first or hen!!)

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  21. after a long spell of 15 years - me went to meet my family doctor..
    he just asked "hi.. how are u?"
    me: "just come to visit u doctor..how are u?"
    he: "Christ.. you are the first one to ask a doctor - How are u?"

    after some chats, me just prepared for leaving..
    he with a deep look asked me,"u -DOX (suffix) allergy.. is in it?"

    doctors!

    ps(!)- if treatments are corporate - then disease too! (don't analyse - whether egg is first or hen!!)

    (ho my god! me corrected all my spelling and grammer mistakes!)

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  22. Dr. Chandana, I am so glad you doctors do a much better job than certain editors :-)

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  23. well, loved being on this post. enjoyed the whole 'session' if i can call it so..

    thanks ramesh :)

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  24. @fida- lolz.. better than ramesh? no ways!!! :) thanks for considerin anyways ;) and ramesh, start workin hard. ur gettin competition u see. ill beat u soon ;)

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  25. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  26. Ram...are u lost for words? That'd be a first...haha

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