The malice of today's doctors

A Story by Om

A brief report exposing the hidden corruption within the government health sector

This pertains to a couple of incidents whilst visiting RML hospital, CP, Delhi. I accompanied an acquaintance of mine who had a disseminating (progressively worsening) infection)...

Despite the doctor sending the patient for procedure, the sister refused making excuses that no clinician was there. She directed it back to the doctors (Dr. Shailesh Kumar & Dr. Sneh Jayant, both consultants) who responded by humiliating the patient publicly for wasting their time instead of addressing the pending treatment. The patient tried one last time to reason with staff.

Dr Sumit (a JR) directed the SR (yes...his senior) not to perform the procedure. This was substantiated by Dr Mohammed (also a JR) who interrupted Dr Faisal (JR) just when he was about to start. The sister sarcastically laughed upon our exit, stating that it was not in fate to get treated?!

The patient persisted by visiting ED since the untreated condition only worsened due to lack of treatment. Attending Dr. Ananya CMO even initially questioned why this was not treated before & sent the patient to surgical emergency stat.

The patient was examined by Dr Rashid (SR) & Mansi (intern). He promised to undertake the procedure within the next half hour.

3 hours passed...whenever we enquired what was happening, all staff claimed he was eating food...then that he had left for the day...conflicting information. Since when does a doctor on-call spend 2hours eating?!

We then confirmed from Usman at the emergency OT that in fact he was not busy but evading us (he had not undertaken any procedure at all that afternoon).

When we finally caught him at his own game, he roared & asked all the patients to act as false witnesses to support him, otherwise he would not treat them....blackmail by a doctor? How low & desperate can they fall?

Unsurprisingly, once again Dr. Sumit (the junior) told him not to perform the procedure, citing nuisance. Instead of putting the patient's interests first, he cowardly succumbed to his junior's demands. Even Mansi the intern denied ever examining or even seeing the patient! Amnesia or psychosis?

When we returned to ED, Dr. Ananya was also poisoned by them & informed us that regardless of what happens to the patient, they are bound by medical ethics to support each other (their colleagues), come what may. She resisted in providing her name, claiming this is personal & scolded us not to make her angry. She could have easily intervened & herself arranged for the treatment. They would rather that a patient dies just to save their job. This is illogical & actually contrary to MCI guidelines & the Hippocratic Oath that every doctor undertakes when graduating...(see this link):

http://www.medindia.net/education/mci-guidelines.asp

To add insult to the wound (quite literally injured now), Dr Sumit & another junior (Dr Bhavnik) called the patient "stupid" & laughed. Ironically when asked in response "what does superinfection mean?", he replied that he didn't understand English! How are such doctors permitted to practise medicine?

Reporting this incident to both the HOD (Dr K.C Durga) & Medical Superintendent (Dr A.K Gadpayle) resulted in a fruitless investigation, riddled with cover ups & false reports...& all was ignored. Even the MCI appear to have turned a blind eye to all. Such apathy...

From this, there is no rationale for any of their behaviour & sadly confirms that many doctors are actually bringing harm to patients than good...are they the devil after all? Worst of all, there is nothing one can do about it. This is why they behave the way they do...knowing all to well that they can get away unscathed. What will it take to revolutionize this malpractice & broken system?

There are some serious fitness to practise impairment issues here & according to DSM-5 + ICD-10 guidelines, many of these staff appear to be suffering from the mental illness IED (Intermittent Explosive Disorder). They need to seek professional help & manage their condition to protect the public. Often CBT & psychotherapy is sufficient...who would have expected doctors to be victims of pathological conditions themselves? I guess everyone is human after all.

Even the clerk at counter for OPD registration refused making a paper to see another doctor despite being advised to do so...being denied treatment? Seriously, what is the world coming to? What is the purpose of hospitals & doctors? To treat patients. Are they? Maltreatment yes, therapeutic no...