Who is this Idiot Doctor? Asked me by a renowned Kuwaiti Cardiologist once in Kuwait when I went to him to check my cardiac problem. Then he went a little further and again asked me, “since your doctor in Goa is a Psychiatrist, why he interfered in your sickness of Cardiology?” Then he asked me one more question, “is this the normal medical system in Goa?”
It all happened because during one of my vacations in Goa a few years back I went for my check-up to one doctor who happened to be a Psychiatrist and while checking me he noticed some flaws in my heart beats for which he prescribed some medicine. After returning to Kuwait, I showed that prescription given to me by the Goan doctor to my regular Cardiologist in Kuwait. Reading the prescription of my Goan doctor he noticed his designation as Psychiatrist and got annoyed for handling cases not pertaining to his speciality. Hence, he remarked saying “Who is this idiot Doctor?”.
In Mapusa till recently there was one Orthopedic doctor/surgeon practicing at one of the Private Hospitals but he was handling any type of patients including Cancer patients and unfortunately every Cancer patient he operated died. Yet he was not changing his dirty habit of not sticking to his specialty.
In Salcete there was one doctor/surgeon whose speciality was TB but again like our Mapsencar doctor, he too was handling patients suffering from any type of sickness including Cancer and thus instead of curing the patients he was killing them.
In Calangute constituency there are two Private Hospitals where patients of any sickness are admitted even though there are neither competent doctors there nor proper facilities to handle all types of sickness of the patients but they admit in their hospitals any type of patient. Finally when they realize that they are unable to cure the patients, they either shift those patients to GMC at the last minute or silently allow the patients to die in their own hospitals. Even the patients they shift to GMC at the last minute do not survive forcing the doctors to ask “Why did you not bring the patients earlier so that appropriate medical treatment could have been provided”.
In government hospitals most of the Nurses are become Curses and most of the Private hospitals are become money making rackets because many of the doctors there are acting like butchers who for the sake of money butcher their conscience and medical ethics by doing things which are not appropriate for their noble profession. These doctors do not care for human life but care only for money in which direction they will do anything because they are so corrupt. In fact many of them are more corrupt than the corrupt politicians. In my constituency the two hospitals as indicated above are already named by the people as “Killing Hospitals” because of this Tag patients have started to boycott these hospitals. According to my latest information some constituents of this Constituency are gearing up to campaign against these hospitals thru the printed leaflets which will be distributed in the locality indicating the flaws existing in these hospitals.
The most important tactic some of the money making doctors are making is to instill fear into the minds of the patients and their relatives saying “the sickness is serious and requires immediate operation” costing not only thousands but lakhs of rupees. For this reason before going for major operation a second opinion must be sought because many of the current doctors are not sincere to their Oath. Many people have lost their trust in the present day doctors.
There are some doctors in private hospitals who by referring their patients to certain hospitals for specialized treatment when it is not necessary, get hefty commission just as corrupt politicians do. Some of the doctors are so corrupt that their corruption is worst than that of corrupt politicians.
In view of above, I feel, the government must enact a legislation to restrict the doctors to handle patients only those who come under their specialization. Also, one more legislation to prevent private hospitals from admitting patients whose cases are beyond the capacity of those hospitals.
A. Veronica Fernandes,
Candolim, Goa.
Tel: 7507394349.