I had two instances recently where the behaviors of doctors did not merit good professional dignity. I am living in Bangalore. One instance we had booked an appointment with the doctor for our child. The receptionist gave us a call and doubly confirmed our arrival for appointment. Realizing they were very anxious about us keeping up our time, we reached 5 minutes earlier to the appointment.
Unfortunately the doctor was late by half an hour. When the doctor came in, she did not even apologize and behaved as if we were the one who were late for the appointment. She barely listened to (more pretended to) us for 5 minutes before she rushed out and started giving instruction to the receptionist. We had to pay a considerable sum in consultation, all down the drain.
In another instance, when my husband had a shoulder dislocation problem, we visited Hosmat hospital and one of the senior doctors was looking at the MRI scan. His lighted board where they place the X-Rays and MRI scans to view it did not work despite him trying again and again. He took it to the window and flicked it as if he was reading a morning news paper in hurry. At that time a young man barged in without knocking, despite the fact that doctor was engaged in an appointment. He launched into his project work, which this doctor seemed to be guiding. Both of them looked oblivious to our presence and they discussed at length about the project. The barging young man was satisfied at the end of a 10 minute conversation and scooted off. The doctor now turned and did not go back to MRI scans and announced, "You need a surgery". We asked, "What is the name of the surgery". He started telling the name of the surgery and stopped himself. He said, “Knowing the name of the surgery will not make any difference to you”. My god, it was unbelievable. Hosmat hospital was supposed to be the leading hospital in Bangalore for Orthopedics and one doctor was talking like this off hand as he was the zamindar who was commanding his illiterate and helpless workmen.
We learnt from other references that how a shoulder surgery gone wrong can change life itself by restricting my arm movements permanently. This was the detail that doctor in Hosmat thought it was not worth sharing with the patients. People who don’t think for themselves and think doctors are gods only will get treated at such a hospital and with such a doctor.
We later approached the Sports Medicine department in Manipal hospital. The doctor there was a thorough professional, who examined my husband completely and also studied the MRI scans in detail. He later on explained the shoulder problem in detail and possible approaches to it. He took the treatment in stages giving us the full knowledge of what he was doing. We were convinced and continued the treatment with him.
There are good and bad doctors in India, but baddies seem to be the majority. If these doctors come down from their ivory tower pedestal and give dignity to their profession and consider patients as intelligent human beings, things could change. Patients also should of course become more demanding and ask questions and do their own research before they settle with some doctor.
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