'Neeya Naana'
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neeya_Naana) is a very famous program
in Vijay TV which attracts a lot of people because of its
presentation style (credit goes to Mr. Gopinath) and the subjects it
discuss. Last week's (on 17/08/2014) episode created a lot of irk
among the doctor fraternity in Tamilnadu. This particular episode
discussed about doctors' clinical practice style in the current
scenario. As usual there was a lot of annoyed audience (read
patients) on the audience panel and they raised very valid questions
to the doctors' panel in the program. Most of the doctors failed to
convince the audience. The anchor also cross questioned some doctors
regarding their ethical practice (please watch the episode
http://www.tamiltwist.com/2014/08/neeya-naana-17-08-2014-vijay-tv-debate-show/
). I also felt most of the questions taken up by the audience were
valid and as public servants doctors were supposed to answer there
queries, but most of them failed in their task.
After the telecast of the
show, the entire doctor fraternity (except good doctors) got screwed
up and IMA made their statement clear by asking all the doctor
fraternity to lodge complaint against Vijay TV to Indian Broadcasting
Foundation (ibfindia.com).
As a common man I have
got a lot of doubts regarding doctor's commitment towards society;
Students who comes out
with flying clolors in plus-two examinations and medical entrance
tests, when asked about their future plans, will tell "I want
to become a doctor and wants to serve our society especially poor"!
But these same students will
protest against the government's policy of compulsory one-year rural
service. If at all they opt for the rural service, most of the
doctors won't be available in the hospitals and primary health
centers in villages!
I
personally know a lot of parents who works really 'hard' to make
their son/daughter a doctor. Their main motive is to get a 'elite
status' for their son/daughter in the society and a ' great price
tag' in the marriage market. And of course, once they finish their
study they will look forward to reap the benefits in many 'ways'! We
cannot blame them because education now a days has became a sheer
business where as a student if you invest a lot, you can reap a lot
after completing your studies! So once they complete their study, it
will be money-making time for them and they will do anything for
that, starting from colluding with labs and scanning center to
accepting gifts from pharma companies for pushing their products! I
do remember in one debate similar to Neeya Naana in some other TV
channel, a doctor was saying "if we won't accept the gifts
from the pharma companies, some other guy will take it on behalf of
ours"! Okay, that logic is well and good, but my simple
request to people like them is to why do not you accept that gift
from the pharma companies and contribute that to a poor patient's
healthcare expense? Sounds like Robinhood theory...is not it ? But
why they do not became Robinhood for the poor !
Days
are gone where healthcare has been seen as a social service and
non-profit sector. Now there are a lot of for-profit healthcare
setups who publicly says we are here for making profit and sometimes
giving service! Even that is the case, a hospital or a doctor is not
permitted to loot a patient unethically.
Another
thing really concerns me is the emotional temper of the new-gen
doctors. Most of the new-gen doctors are short tempered and they
think that once they became doctors they are the supreme powers.
Their curriculum also teaches them not to be empathetic towards the
patients and must see patients just like a 'sample study material'!
Two
days back one of my friend visited a local doctor in Tirunelveli.
While consulting, the doctor got a call from another patient. He was
asking about some lab results' value after googling about it. Doctor
answered his queries satisfactorily. Then the doctor told my friend
that – "that fellow might have seen 'Neeya Naana'
yesterday" ! My question
is who made the doctor to think like that and what made the patient
to search google for the lab results' validity!
Now
about the doctor's protest against the Neeya Naana program. A few
years back there was a Tamil movie called 'Ramana',
starring actor-turned politician Vijayakant. In that movie, a lot of
unethical practices of doctors have been shown very sarcastically. I
did not see any protest from doctor's side or IMA against that
particular movie at that time! Both the 'Ramana'
movie and the 'Neeya Naana'
talk show are made for infotainment purpose only. If that is the case
why the doctor fraternity became frustrated only at this time?!
I
have also seen doctors taking credit of the good things like a
successful liver transplant, heart transplant, success of a
complicated microsurgery etc. If they can take credit, why do not
they take the responsibility of the unintentional outcomes of the
treatment they does? It is very painful to say that a majority of the
doctors are least concerned about answering the questions of the
patients and their attenders. In any part of the world if you pay for
a service, you will always expect proper accountability from the
person/organization that gives you the service. If it is not
delivered, customers will obviously become frustrated. So it is
responsibility of the doctors to speak to the patients and convince
them on their language and condole them if anything goes wrong!
In my
opinion, doctors must introspect about their activities and
understand what does really meant by 'service'. Instead of that if
doctors' organizations like IMA, NHB etc starts witch hunting the
whistle blowers who one way or other way managed to say that "king
is naked", they must sit and discuss what really motivated poor
patients to talk like that (TRP rate of the Vijay TV does not matter
to the poor patient, he only wants correct diagnosis and treatment).
It is also high time for the miscreant doctors to come up clean and
take the patients into confidence, if not programs like 'Neeya Naana'
might be conducted in the hospital itself, not by Mr. Gopinath but by
the patients themselves! So my dear Doctors, Arise and Awake and stop
not till the goal is reached !
