THE OVERHYPED PROFESSION

I just wrote a medical joke which is quite simple for everyone to understand. 

There was a patient. There was a Doctor. The patient died. Then, the Doctor died. The patient died of the stroke inside the head. The Doctor died of a stroke outside his head. Hilarious… I bet it is!!

 Last few days have been abuzz with social media trends, right from #Savedoctors to #MedTwitterIsMad, it was painful for some and entertaining for others. While as a doctor, one feels demotivated and angry seeing all this, there is a section of society which stays indifferent and that irks me.

 Why the indifference? After getting over the normal vexed response as a doctor, I sat down to dig a bit deeper.

What is this whole hue and cry about?

Last week, a bridge collapsed in Jharkhand… allegedly due to mining. Last month, a bridge collapsed in Odisha killing a man… but it was under-construction so, that is ok. But according to me, it was not ok. I think it could have been the fault of the engineer and we better hunt that engineer and beat him.

It doesn’t make sense… Right. Because obviously, there is mining involved, tenders involved, contractors involved and that is where the fault usually happens. Just the same way, there is government, corporate, medical suppliers, resources and innumerable things involved in case of a doctor.

And in a civilised world, we don’t go around beating people.  However, ’Civilized’ is the catch word.

But Doctor is a noble profession… it is moral responsibility… doctor deals with life and death?

“Doctor has to have morals even with broken bones, an avulsed scalp and a bruised heart,” Such was the poetic frustration of a friend of mine two days back. So, Let me get this very straight here once and for all.

Firstly, Morality in a behaviour is concerned with your right and wrong actions and not the reactions or results. My morality in a behaviour is in treating the patient to the best of my capability with all my resources, and is not decided by the result of the treatment… definitely not by the life and death of a patient if you did what you could.

Secondly, let’s learn the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Scientifically, any human brain would work towards meeting the needs at the bottom of the pyramid and then gradually rise up. It has nothing to do with any profession or any individual. A rich man is at the top of that rung self actualising and doing all the charity and people go gaga over him. 

Was Siddhartha born as Buddha? No, he was born a prince, placing him right there at the top of pyramid. He had plenty of time to introspect and do self realisation.

 I am sitting and writing a blog because I am actually somewhere above beyond the physiological and safety needs. A regular doctor is working at the very bottom and people from the top of the pyramid are bringing out all their righteousness at pretty wrong times. You give him enough to meet his needs and then we will have a chat on morality.

Why people beat the doctors?

In March 2007, people ransacked MS Dhoni’s home after India lost in the World Cup. Was Dhoni the only one playing in the team? No.

That brings us to the first reasoning of the God Complex around our profession. Strangely, our nation has a habit of worshipping… anything and anyone. They do that routinely for superfluous celebrities and later, turn on them on finding that they are human. Similarly, it is anger and helplessness that emerges out of the people when they realise that medical science and doctors are fallible, as they never expect it to. Say what, a hospital and a health care professional gives people hope like nothing else.

Adding on to this emotion, another sentiment does the trick where unwise people gang up on the doctors. The sentiment echoes – “doctors are making money, they are loots, they give expensive medicines etc etc”, which is why I say that ours is the most misunderstood overhyped profession with tags of noble… moral.. virtuous. 

So do doctors not overcharge patients… are they not corrupt?

People are foolish because they are emotional. A sugarcane juicer costs 2000 to 5000 rupees using which the shopkeeper makes a 10 to 20 rupees worth a glass of juice. A basic semi automated blood analyser costs two to three lakh rupees. A basic ventilator unit costs five lakh rupees. You all should be wise enough I guess.  And I am not even telling you the number of people that have to be paid… the infrastructure that has to be maintained. 

I am in full agreement with the statement that some doctors have tarnished the name of the profession with illegal acts. But which profession is absolutely clean? And it is very simple that at the top of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, individual has the opportunity to become either Buddha or Ravan. Even so, Ravan’s character is considered to be highly misinterpreted…. maybe just like our profession. All said and done, that doesn’t generalise our profession because most have their hearts in right place.

The social media trends and silence of the non medical fraternity?

Well, everything trends these days… worthy or not. So where the doctors came together to speak against these acts of violence, they also acknowledged the silence of the non medicos. The majority stayed silent because of the skewed mentality where they actually blamed the doctors, somewhere deep down. I pity this mentality. Nothing else. It would take a lot of wisdom and empathy just to think about how a doctor becomes a doctor… right from the competition of the pre medical entrance exams. Unfortunately, the empathy and wisdom is lacking.

Most doctors put up statuses and stories of not resorting to tele-consultations for people henceforth, as people don’t value our knowledge. Yet again, as I say, Doctors… let’s not generalise the society or we would do the same mistake as they have done. Their reactions should not guide our actions. The good of many will eventually overweigh the bad of few. Our Karma is in our hands and it should never be decided by the fruits one expects it to bear. It sounds too theatrical but in our profession, that is the truth.

The solution?

The solution would be a combination of Allopathy and Ayurveda. Making laws and signing petitions never stops the crime. Murders or robberies do not cease to happen after the law is in place.

The solution involves employing a high level of institutional security with resources for personal security. That is the Allopathic treatment.

The Ayurvedic treatment would be the change in the attitude and mindset of the people in general.

Allopathic treatment is the need of the hour with the Ayurvedic treatment slowly working for long term fitness and health.

Peace out.