‘AN UPHILL TASK ALL ALONG’

‘INDIAN DOCS SUBJECTED TO VERBAL, PHYSICAL, MEDICO-LEGAL ABUSE’

In India, doctors are expected to perform miracles, and if they cannot, they are subjected to abuse — verbal and physical and medico-legal. A country that spends less than 3% of its GDP on healthcare can never realistically provide good quality healthcare in the public sector.

Every segment, whether in government or private sector, has its set of problems. At the grassroot/rural level, healthcare is inadequate, most patients blindly believe in RMPs and middlemen complicate matters. In the tertiary government sector, amid insufficient infrastructure, manpower and funding and obsolete technology, doctors struggle to handle heavy patient loads and train medical graduates while providing maximum free service to the public. The persistent stress carries risks of burnout.

In the private teaching sector, though some centres of excellence exist, they cater to only the high-end section of society. In high end private /corporate hospitals, teaching takes a backseat and profit margins take precedence. The reality is that the corporate healthcare sector is not usually owned or run by doctors but by businessmen, politicians and investors. Also, half-baked knowledge through Google and social media, rigid mindsets and blind belief in alternative medicine are misleading millions of people. A well-trained family physician can and is expected to pick up/identify symptoms outside his domain and refer patients to an appropriate specialist at the right time. They act as a bridge between the public and the specialist and reduce the overall burden at various levels in the healthcare pyramid.

— Dr G Abhilash, Radiation Oncologist at Apollo Hospitals