NEW DELHI: A recent survey conducted in the India indicates an alarmingly disturbing trend – doctors are increasingly becoming scalpel-happy.
Wide-ranging interviews with surgeons who testified before a non governmental organisation on corrupt practices in hospitals told that often patients are forced to undergo unnecessary surgeries.
The Times of India newspaper quoted a senior doctor as saying, “We have a quota to meet every month. Many of us see patients as a potential candidate on our operating table. Only two out of five, however, agree. Many go for a second opinion – and don’t return.”
Pune-based NGO SATHI (Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives) compiled this data after interviewing 78 doctors across the country.
“Many of these surgeries don’t involve too many risks, while at the same time fetches more revenue for the hospitals,” said SATHI coordinator Dr Abhay Shukla.
A cardio-thoracic surgeon at a multi-specialty hospital who spoke on the condition of anonymity said, “It is easier to practice independently. It gives you more freedom to serve your patients’ interest. But, more people are drawn to the glamour attached to corporate hospitals.
Another doctor was allegedly rapped on his knuckles by the hospital administration for having only a 10% ‘conversion rate’ – referring to the number of patients who were advised to undergo surgery.
The former editor of the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics, Dr. George Thomas said the country has few guidelines to check the practice.
This damning report comes at a time when the government is waking up to the problems of likely “cartelisation” among diagnostic centres and pathological laboratories.
This issue had rocked the Indian parliament and the then Health Minister Dr. Harsh Vardhan had said, that patients are subjected to unnecessary tests by the doctors who are guided by the “lucre of commissions” offered by diagnostic centres.
He also said the government is considering to bring some type of oversight for pathological laboratories and diagnostic centres to end the corrupt practices.
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