Medicine-Noble profession or Money Making Business

This is a true incident which happened.

My friend recently started consulting a doctor as his mother's activity and response slowed down. The kind doctor advised him to meet a neurophysiology who happened to be consulting in the same hospital and would be available at that point of time. Timings 2 - 6 pm.

He knocked on the doctor's door at 5.15 pm to request consultation immediately after he had finished with this kind doctor.

The response 'I am not here to entertain you in my free time.'

My friend tried to explain 'The patient is an elderly lady.'

The doctor curtly replied 'If it is an emergency go to Casualty'

However, since he was the referred doctor my friend decided to come the following day.

While waiting he noticed a renowned actress of the 90's waiting for the same doctor. When the doctor arrived she explained about an emergency and wanted his opinion.

Without a second thought to the patients in waiting, this doctor promptly left to attend the same that too in a different hospital.

All in All here Money and Fame became the only deciding factor. If you don't have both, you will be dying but no one will give you a second look.

There are many similar instances where many are denied medical help or due attention. Reasons cited are extremely silly at times. Real reasons being doctors are servicing influential clients instead of those who really need help and are in waiting.

At that point of time the question arises 'Does medicine remain a noble profession or just a money making business?'

The same can be said for education also where all illegal and socially unacceptable practices have become rampant?

What should one term this as?

1.     Greed for money and fame.

2.     Corruption

3.     Dead Ethics

4.     Dead Humanity

 

 

Disclaimer - Names are purposely kept out of this post for matters of confidentiality

 

 

Edited by DJ.. - 12 years ago

You get all types of people in every field and Medicine is no exception.

Originally posted by: angie.4u

You get all types of people in every field and Medicine is no exception.

Regarding the inident mentioned above- a few questions that arise -

-was it a privately practising doctor or one in a  govt hospital ?Private ... situated in plush area

-Was it in India? Yes but how does it matter

I presume it was a pvt doctor as you mentioned him leaving for another hospital. Probably a visiting consultant. Yes he is in the OPD but on the panel of hospital My friend had taken his mother for OPD consultation and would pay a hefty fee of Rs 1000/- per consultation.

Most doctors see patients by prior apointment. One who is a visiting consultant would have fixed hours at different clinics and would have to adhere to the time schedule. Its rare for any doctor to speak that rudely. Not while you are in the OPD of a hospital. Its is not a private chamber of the doctor. Also my friend was well in time. And even if he had fixed a prior consultation He had not business to be rude. I guess no one goes to doctor to get entertained except some ladida girl who want to look better who may go to cosmetologist but definitely not to a neuro

As for your questions -

What (why) should not term this?

1.     Greed for money and fame.-

Your friend would have paid the requisite fees anyway so how does this hold true? Fame in this profession spreads best by word of mouth.  Fame of being seen along a celebrity 🤢

 

2.     Corruption

How? Corruption means perversion of integrity My look out He lack integrity towards his profession.

3.     Dead Ethics

Possible

 

4.     Dead Humanity

May have constraints of time and number of patients in the waiting list. When my friend had approached the doctor the previous evening there were no more patients waiting for him out his room in the OPD.The lady you mentioned may have taken a prior appointment with the doctor for all you know. No she hadn't he heard her talk. Anyway, ethically speaking a patient with urgent need gets priority over all others. Then why did the doctor say to my friend if it is an emergency go to the casualty.

 

Read above for answers
Edited by DJ.. - 12 years ago

Its sad that your friend had such a bad experience at what was supposed to a plush clinic.

Absolutely he plans to do that when another doctor he has a reference for returns from his vacation

But the problem remains. What about the people who don't have the money or the reach where should go?

You cant paint the whole profession black because of a few bad incidents!

1. A private doctor is free of regulations. If you don't like him/her, go to a different doctor.

Doctors are sadists who like to play God and watch lesser people scream

- from the movie Juno

I don't think any profession is noble or anything. It's just a profession, a means to earn money and make a living, period. Now whether someone will use that profession to do something useful or be a menace is entirely upto different individuals.

And honestly, a sample size of 1 is too small a base to pass judgement on an entire profession.
Edited by souro - 12 years ago

@ OP, sorry about your friend. What happened to him was pretty dastardly, but the truth is that modern medicine is not bereft with corruption and gross misrepresentation of information and Hippocratic ideals.

Modern medicine is far from being noble. If I was an astrophysicist, I'd gladly measure the distance between ethics and Big Pharma/allopathy in terms of light years.

Big Pharma is a multi-billion (putting it lightly) dollar corporate subsidy funded by taxpayers. It's part of the nexus between drug companies, doctors, universities, Government, insurance firms, and what have you. Diseases are created on the fly, and 'cures' are thrust down the throats of the masses in the hopes of them shelling out their hard earned money on such drugs. It's all about making money on medication patents while they exist.

Watch Big Bucks, Big Pharma if you want to have a better understanding of how this nexus works.

As you can see, I'm pretty vitriolic when it comes to this subject 😆. However, that's not to say that there aren't a few good apples in the basket. I just have an issue with the industry as a whole.


edit: in grammar Nazi mode.
Edited by pinkfreud - 12 years ago