PRIVATE PRACTISE BY DOCTORS ;BANE OR BOON

PRIVATE PRACTISE BY DOCTORS .... A BANE OR A BOON.....

It is in the inherent nature of truth itself to unveil itself, get revealed .it has a strong odour ,pleasant or unpleasant depending upon the perceiver and of course varying with the time and space . Most of the times we know the truth but at subconscious level. we try every method to let it remain at that level , even further suppress it and ,smother it just because of the fear. Its the fear of the unseen and unheard..We fear of our plight when truth will come at the forefront as we are so used to living our life in a make believe world that the very glimpse of truth sends jitters down our spine .

PRIVATE PRACTISE BY DOCTORS .... A BANE OR A BOON.....

A "high profile sting operation" conducted or sponsored by the govt .which in the broad day light brought to the forefront the faces of those doctors who were involved in the"menace" of private practicing. It seems that the whole scene was planned and orchestered so well. High profile officers were themselves directing the whole event .It was under the "able" presence of the police personnel ,fortunately the paramilitary or military was not called .May be they were on the red alert and ready to barge in any moment when the bosses ordered. The camera work was superb ,God knows whether professionals were hired or the phone cameras did the trick. , and then finally came the turn of omnipresent facebook. The motive was to seed in fear in the minds of doctor community in general & private practicing doctors ,[ govt. employed ] in particular .Fear has a nature of inbreeding and turning malignant. The idea was to create a fear psychosis which the act achieved quite magnificiently.Writing is clear on the wall to, stop private practice for once and all. till now it seems to be going well.but there is much more than meets the common eye which we can ignore at our own peril.

A man who was glorified as being the youngest chief ministers few years back ,has almost lost everything . He is burdened by the blood of those who were killed during his reign. The unrest that prevailed , .Worst possible corruption charges ,sex scandals are against his men of clergy .His credibility is at its worst low.How to regain the lost pride ?[if there was any pride to start with ].It is so simple ,just hit that bunch of people who cant harm u .People who are so docile who know nothing about retaliation .people who are expectedly to be tolerant ,inhumanely tolerant rather . people who haven’t remained in the public good books either , make them scape goats ,slaughter them and rub that blood on your forehead as the pride tag of achievement .He can do it ,else people around him will make him do it . It has been an age old tradition to divert attention from the main problems by creating quasi-problems and beating drums of their dissolution .

Lets do a brief introspection and a careful dissection of few facts . By nature public memory is very short ,just few months ago, the conditions here were not so rosy. Fury, rage death and destruction was routine .our hosplitals were flooded with patients and their blood .Who was killing whom is not the point to be debated ,but who were the only people working .during those times .its not an over statement to say no one besides police , military and people belonging to medical profession. Some were killing and some healing . We risked everything so as to reach our places of work .it was the situation that demanded this from us and we tried our best to deliver. our vehicles were damaged , we ourselves received injuries ,Everyday was a nightmare and the challenge was huge but we met the challenge head on . But does anybody care .we didn see any article of appreciation on this subject .we couldn’t see praises being showered on any doctor .now what stung the tongue of those people who are at the forefront presently against doctors .Now couldn they mutter a few lines that time .Well we can call it selective amnesia or selective denial,in sense it means deny a thing purposely till one feels it seems to have lost its existence. Good needs to be praised and nurtured for it to prevail . What comes to limelight is only a failed operation by a doctor ,a thousand successful surgeries eat dust as if they didn happen . A single or bunch of doctors indulging in malpractise get noticed but thousands not indulging in it don’t. Reason is .its simply not the news that will sell .its trash…

Now lets ponder over the real issue of private practice of doctors .Kashmir and for that reason skims is not the only place where this private practice is banned .. a blanket ban.rather againt all forms of private practice. Kerala banned the private practice of all doctors working in govt run medical ,dental and nursing colleges of the state way back in September 2009. Maharashtra followed suite with banning private private practice of govt employed doctors in aug 2010.If we take a look at the outside trends are slightly different .According to report published in The New York Times in march 2010,more doctors in America are giving up the private practice. Traditionally American medicine has largely been a cottage industry where most of the patients were cared by doctors in self owned small private clionics .But the trends now show an increasing number of young physicians are taking regular salaries at hospitals .They are undoubtedly burdened by the medical school debts and are seeking regular hours of work .The percentage of doctors working in private which once used to be around 70% in US is now less than 50%.and the trend is continuing .

Going through all this there seems to be no consensus what is the actual emerging trend about the practice of doctors.A single system cannot work every where because of the logistics which are different at different places .see for example doctor to poatient ratio in India is ….. where as in Us it is …. …. How can a single doctor do justice more than 100 to 200 patients he has to see on an average in opd .In these circumstances patient satisfaction takes a back seat.The smile vanishes from the Doctors' face . Instead of concentratig on the disease of the patient ,he concentrates how well and how soon can he see the end of long line of patients . Private practice as such is not that bad either .Here the patient has a direct control which doctor he can consult for his ailment.patient can make an informed choice ,that reduces the rush on already stretched govt hospitals. He is saved from the self styled quacks . The haste in which this decision of banning the private practice was taken and the delay that followed the decision itself proved to be source of friction between the doctors ,patients and the authorities

Modalities that can end this quagmire have to be searched .There are feelings of anger ,fury ,despair among people in general and doctors in particular. It was not the issue of private practice alone but it was the approach with which it was dealt that raised the eye brows ."Confession statements on camera ".The people for whom rules were laid were never consulted at the ist place .Never was any public opinion sought . Never was impact of such a decision imagined .instead of doing any good it has and it will encourage malpractice.A novel idea would have been to make N.P.A optional . Allowing the doctors to hold private and paid opds inside the hospital premesis after 4 .p.m.The money that will be earned will be shared between the hospital and the practisg doctor. An informed public opinion is the need of hr this time.Let the people decide but we need to inform them first..

DR ARIF HUSSAIN SARMAST

POST GRADUATE STUDENT DEPTT OF GEN SURGERY SKIMS

E mail : arifhsarmast@gmail.com