The doctors get beaten up for referring a case late or asking for money, delay in operation and inadequate experience. Poor post operative care and non availability of the doctor in hospital or not attending a serious patient are some of the major problems with certain doctors.
Documentation by the nurses and doctors are very poor in almost all our hospitals, which lead to legal problems in future. A majority of judges are sympathetic to doctors and they realize under what circumstances a doctor work but with poor documentations it’s very difficult to fight a case.
They must keep themselves updated by purchasing new text books of their subjects every two years, attending minimum two CME(continuous medical education) every year, getting themselves insured for litigations , availability at duty place, not to criticize or speak against colleagues and other hospital staffs, asking for money from patients, update with medico legal guidelines, bad behaviour with patients or their relatives, short tempered, examining a lady patient without a lady attendant, never ask money from a policeman, politician , Press representative, or your own professional colleagues(4Ps). As far as possible avoid injections, always consult a senior or more experienced colleague for opinion. Never vent out your grievances to Press people, first talk with your higher authority.
The Government should punish the doctors who are not found in their work place without information. There should be periodic check up and validity of registration papers of Odisha Medical Council by health Directors. The unemployed youths (SC-ST) should be employed on ad hoc basis as security guard in the PSCs. Doctors should be sympathetic to patient’s relatives when someone is serious or dead. He must inform the relatives about the serious condition of the patient. The discharge or referral papers should be handed over to the party at the earliest, so that they cannot blame the doctor for the delay.
Even the multi-specialty modern hospitals face problems due to non-payment of dues by the patients or by their relatives at the time of discharge or death. Public should not compare the Government run hospitals with private multi-specialty modern hospitals. The working condition in the Government run hospitals should improve with adequate staffs. The most difficult business anywhere in the world is running a hospital, that’s a fact. Many people think that money can buy anything, if that would have been so then, so many rich and famous people would never have died in their prime age. Medical science is a half science and even some do not consider it as a science because it does not satisfy the fundamental criteria of science “reproducibility”. No two malaria or cancer patients are alike, so the sign and symptoms are never reproducible in a majority of patients. Even if the cause is known no treatment is available. Death is eternal truth, which majority is not prepared to accept.
Our administrators / Ministers must discuss with the corporate hospital administrators to have a branch with a ten beds in head quarters of few districts which are far-off from Bhubaneswar or Cuttack. That would reduce the burden on the Government doctors and also help in taking care of seriously ill patients needing ventilators in remote places of Odisha, let’s decentralize our medical service. The hospital should go to patients and not the other way round.
(Dr Satpathy is a faculty for SARC countries and Joint Director, SAIl)