Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Satyamev Jayate


Hello.. Sorry I have been away.. Being a medical student isn’t an easy job. Not enough free time. Moreover I have shifted to a new city, so it takes time to settle down and stuff.
Moreover, it wasn’t just being busy that kept me away, I had nothing to post on.. Nothing very interesting.. Yeah you guessed it, now I do..:D
A new show has started on Star Network. It’s called “Satyamev Jayate”. It’s a show produced by Aamir Khan and his team. Aamir Khan himself is the show host. He takes up topics related to things that are prevalent in the society.. Like on the Sunday before the last Sunday, he took up the topic of dowry, and all the problems associated with such a practice.. The shows are brilliant and it strikes straight at the viewers heart.
Last Sunday his topic was doctors and the malpractices they do.. It was a brilliant show as ever, bringing tears to everyone’s eyes and stuff.. And he’s not absolutely wrong.. The malpractices that happen in India are obnoxious!
After the show medical students like us had our discussions. I even talked to non medicos.. And they were pretty scared! One even suggested that we should start going to Ayurveda doctors instead! The reason was that the program was biased..
Doctors form a community which is respected by all Indians. Every doctor who can heal a patient is treated with respect. Some are treated like Gods! And then there are some who are the cheap stuff. They’re in for the profit and play with people’s lives.
The point is whenever you are in for profit, you play with people’s lives.. With most professions it’s indirect, with doctors it is direct! So if a building falls down and 100s are killed, you don’t know who to blame! The engineer, the contractor, the cement guy, the metal guy, blah blah.. But if a guy loses his life because of a doctor, well, u know who to kick!
In the show Aamir Khan talks about the number of licenses cancelled in the UK to those in India.. In India no license has been cancelled in the recent past.. This fact amazes the audience because that would mean that all doctors in India are either so good that there license hasn’t been cancelled or the system is corrupt!
It’s true that license in India are not cancelled as strictly as they are in UK.. But did he miss a point?? YESS!! He did!! And did the audience miss the point?? OF COURSE THEY DID!! But did they ask the question? UK is a “developed” country and India is “developing”. To most it is a difference of attitude, but basically it is not ATTITUDE that makes us a developing country and UK a developed country! It’s STATISTICS!! I won’t go into much details of it as you may find enough on the net already. But there are few points I’d like to emphasize.
Let us talk about the Doctor to Patient ratio.. I got this on the net. Click here. It’s an old statistics.. But u can still see the difference! Great Britain has 1 doctor for 400 patients and in India there is 1 doctor for every 1,700 patients!!! I couldn’t find the recent statistics of UK, but for in India as of 2012, there is 1 doctor for every 1953 patients.. Reference. it’s not just poor, it’s abysmal!! More so when u compare the salary!! For UK I got this on Payscale (Click) and for Indians (Click).. Comparing the lowest salary on both the charts Rs. 165,703 for Indians and £ 34,258 (Rs. 3,004,464) in UK!! Can u see the difference!! A doctor in UK gets over 15 times the salary for 1/4th the patient load when compared to an Indian doctor!! Also try comparing the least of UK and highest of India. See the difference? Can Indians afford to lose doctors!! NO WAY!! If Indian government starts to cancel licenses like UK, the already abysmal number will go down further more!! So what does the intelligent government do?? Lets not cancel license, at least the statistics will show proper!!! But is that a good thing?? I think not! But yeah, it’s the best thing that they can do right now considering the resources and corruption prevalent in the country!
Very truly put by Dr. Gulati.. The doctors are not to be blamed totally.. It’s the government and the whole social system, if you ask me! Doctors are said to do a noble job and it’s called a noble profession.. But are doctors paid right? The priority of health in this country does lie at the bottom! Are not doctors human!!?? Don’t they deserve to live properly and enjoy!!?? One may say that doctors earn the most in the country! True! But did u calculate the number of hours a doctor puts in to earn that much?? I have heard my non medico friends bicker that they were made to work for over 8hrs in a day!! Doctors have to work 36hrs at a stretch in India!! No sleep no rest!! And still earn as much as any other non medical guy!
PEOPLE SHOULD BECOME DOCTORS NOT FOR THE MONEY!! Yeah right! If a patient dies, the attendant kicks us; work for inhuman hours per day and get paid less; and when all’s tolerated, people come to you after watching a show and tell you “doctors are pathetic!” ARE WE NOT HUMANS!!! When somebody is treated badly, they give that in return. And it’s not just for doctors! But if a doctor becomes bad, the society suffers more than ever! So doctors should have a good moral of conduct.. Well, I say, give them enough money to have a good conduct. Make health a priority in this country. Make a proper education system so that those who want to become doctor to heal, and not to profit, become doctors.
Aamir Khan did an excellent show highlighting the evils of the medical institution. What he didn’t realize that what he has done is made his audience panic! Now everyone who has seen the show will be afraid of getting treated by a doctor. All they will think is that doctor is profiting! But I ask you, are the doctors to be blamed for what’s happening or is it the government and the social system? And I didn’t even take up the pharmaceutical companies and their way of work here! Hahahaha! Try this for instance (click).

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