How healthy (ethically) Indian physicians are?

Well, since childhood many a kids from India want to be a doctor. The medical profession has a very good image in the society. This “image” varies with the variants:

1. Time,

2. Place

and

3. Person

Doctors (in India as in many parts of the world) have been taken as demi-Gods. Many would stick to this “principle” even in these days. But the situation has been changing gradually. There have been instances where these second-gods have been cited as evils in the society.

If we scroll newspapers, we can often find issues related to a medical doctor. Days are gone when a medical professional would have been worshiped. We can easily see many a consumer cases coming up against health professionals. This being said in the purview of the decline of ethical standards.

Doctors of the day are no more than a businessman. Words like life, death, diseases, sufferings etc happen to be of little influence to them (us). Though there are many a individuals and organizations who are practicing and maintaining the practice in an ethical manner, but they are a rarity. Likes of these are everywhere, but very rare breed.

I guess, we can count them on fingers.

Right from the entry into the medical school:

In the year 2004 there were arrests of people who were involved into the paper-leak scam. :O These fellows were involved with paper-leak for entrance exams of professional (Government aided) institutions. It is we the society who are the culprit. And then we blame others for it.

The report in The Hindu.

In the medical school:

The corruption is so enrooted that the teachers are getting black money from the institutes they teach in. Now say, what impact will this have on the students they are teaching to? An evidence to this is the article by Subrata Chattopadhyay. In this article published in the  Indian Journal of Medical Ethics he clearly says about the situation he had to face in a private medical college in India. But the pity is that, there are very little (if any) talk on such issues. Nobody (better say, very few) would like to talk on the matter. And if you want to talk, you will be out-casted.:(

Frankly speaking, we badly need people who work on ethical grounds.

Academic dishonesty:

This article clearly says that the academic dishonesty is rampant in medical colleges in India. Students “approach” the teachers. Parents and others influentials call the evaluators to “take care” of their candidate. :O And the argument given by them is often aapka kya jayega, bachche ko thoda marks mil jayega to (Will it cause any harms to you, if the child gets some marks).

In medical practice:

These out-going students become doctors of tomorrow. Learning from the seniors and fellows around, by now they too have “tasted” the (un)ethical ways to earn money. This manifests in prescribing medicines produced by a company which has been marketing its products at a very high cos compared to the other products available. The same drug’s market price varies a lot depending upon the pharmaceutical company marketing it.

The tablet of the a common anti-allergic may cost paisa 20 if iit is manufactured by a company and on the other hand the same drug may cost INR 2 for one tablet of the same drug by another company. Definitely, pharmaceutical pricing is of prime concern for Indians. Many die due not to access to medical services but to lack of money to puechase the medicines.

Corruption in the topmost medical body:

Now these “educated” doctors enter the world of medical organizations/councils and associations. In India, the topmost medical council is, the Medical Council of India. It is the body govrning many a aspect of medical educatio and practice including registration of health professionals. Second come the state medical councils. The year 2004 saw the worst day a chief of the MCI would have ever seen. Dr. Ketan Desai, the then president of the MCI got fired after he was exposed of his corrupt practices. This report became published in medical journals too. The British Medical Journal article is here. But such instances are rather rare. And this article in its second last paragraph says that the poeple are very faulty. And they are everywhere.

In the nutshell, I come to the point that the medical education and practice in India is highly unethical and we definitely need improvement on it. We definitely need to come forward, else doomsday is no far.

And we physicians are very sick. We need to heal ourselves together with the society we serve to.

Regards,