1126. Hippocratic Oath and Healthcare Professionals....!

I always had considered Doctors to be second God along with Teachers. Importantly the healthcare providers get into their profession after taking the “Hippocratic Oath”. The oath rekindles the high ethical and moral prerequisite in them. Also a doctor should be fully committed to cure, care and being compassionate.

This medical profession is and should have been only for the altruists as it is since ages interpreted as a huge social mission and public service. It implies spacious mind, intellectual capacity, recognition, and support of colleagues, continuous practise and its implementation. Hence some doctors enjoy a special status in society for their professionalism, attitude towards patient, commitment, expertise, theoretical knowledge and practical skills.  

This profession is never for money minded as this profession is not a money-yielding-tree kind of a profession. The logic of fleecing patients is a lame excuse to get back the capitation fee they paid to get the medical degree. The problem is that the medical institutions are either owned by the influential politicians or they have substantial representation in the board of directors of the institutions either directly or through their kith and kin. These medical institutions sell the medical seats to unworthy candidates in large numbers while a few of them are for reservation candidates. These both candidates end up as money sucking leeches by insisting patients to purchase specified medicines which the medical representatives have exhorted to them, so that they would get a commission from the pharmaceutical companies. They do recommend a series of expensive tests and investigations to be done from a specific laboratory as they receive their cut from the receipts.     

Most payments to the doctors are made in cash and it is astonishing to find that even in the laboratories they insist on cash payment so that the payment cannot be traced. Hence, in the annual Income Tax returns most doctors or laboratories show only a minuscule percentage of their actual earnings. 

Unfortunately at this period of digital money even the patient or his relatives do not request for the card payment fearing the doctors spoil their cases in anger. For them at that crucial time money will never be prominent saving the life of the patient is the priority. This is the trump card for those money sucking leeches.

The doctors and the paramedical staff on strike in my state has affected many patients. The protest was to demand the government to drop the proposed bill to amend to the Karnataka Private Medical Establishments Act (KPMEA). The bill seeks to hike the penalties levied on doctors in case of errs in diagnosis and treatment to the extent of imprisonment. It is also aimed at regulating the amount of money charged in various private hospitals and to make the costing more transparent.

Personally I feel it is not the “Bill” but the “Will” of the healthcare professionals that matters more. The moment these professionals work with clear conscience then the relationship between the patient and the medic will flourish. There are a few regulations which need no enforcement by “Law” but by “Love”.