WHY DO MEDICOS GO ON STRIKE? It is common for people to perceive medicos strike as wrong and totally uncalled for. We have always been depicted by large sections of media as "selfish and having demands in gluttony proportions" Now, if you note the developments that have taken place in the recent few weeks, you will know, there are similar agitations elsewhere, in Delhi, TAMIL NADU and Kerala (see Save the Doctor Campaign page on FB). Now, the question arises, Why? And why is it everywhere that doctors go on strike? Imagine a child leaving home at the age of 18 years, only to return at the age of 30 years. Here I bring to your notice that a doctor has to study for ten long years to become a specialist(viz- physician, surgeon, gynaecologist..etc), provided the doctor has not had any long term prior to EAMCET(Pre Medical Test), and no gap in between MBBS and PG entrance. Note that for most individuals, at least 1 year of pre pg preparation is required to crack PG Entrance and get into PG. Please note that we have to study 19 subjects thoroughly within 1 year to crack PG Entrance, which while studying MBBS, we read over 4-1/2 years! * * * While many of our contemporaries in other fields settle at the age of 23-25 years, we do that at 30-33 years..If at all, a doctor wants to go for superspecialty, another 3 years of hard work. So, on an average, we study for 13 long years. And, most students are away from their homes this entire period(13 years), as medical colleges are not everywhere, and not everywhere do you find a seat of your choice. Now, if the govt brings in Bonded Medical Service (BMS), adding one more year, it is quite natural that it shall be opposed as it prolongs the duration of study by 1 full year. * * * Oh yes! 1 year is easy to say for anybody, but for a man who has spent all his youth with books and patients, it means much more. Especially when the government throws him at a place where there are no resources to work, and pay him 50% less than the prevailing reasonable amount paid for the same qualification in government hospitals. Government officials have found a new name for Bonded Servitude in this regard, for the highly regarded medical fraternity. Will an engineering graduate who completed MS after his B-tech, work for an year under the guidance of another person who just has a bachelor degree in engineering? Sounds absurd isnt it? This is exactly whats happening to us.. * * * Now imagine a 23 year old girl who has just passed MBBS and has been posted in a rural PHC, as per the new law contemplated by Govt of India. Now, her parents are both middle class employees, and cant leave their jobs to be with her. She has to go to a distant village, all alone, find an accommodation for herself and live alone (Not everybody has relatives in every village). In a country where women are not safe in the capital city wherein we have the tightest security, who can guarantee a girl’s safety in a village? Now, would Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad or any minister say that I will provide security to every woman doctor in the country who is posted in a village? * * * In a nation where we set such high values by abolishing slavery in 1976, you make fundamental right to education a joke by introducing bonded servitude. You are making a section of India’s youth face punishment for what- Studying? Getting Merit amongst thousands of students? * * * If education is my fundamental right, why should I provide a bond to study? * * * What would an Orthopaedic Surgeon fix if he has no C-Arm to guide him?(C-arm is like see-through eyes in Orthopaedic Surgery) Its not like we are asking for some great technologic wonder of the 21st century which makes our lives easy, we are asking for basic tools that are absolutely required for specialist doctors to work. Oh! We could ask the rulers millions of questions to avail nothing. * * * If the govt is responsible enough, it would spend much more of its GDP than what it does on health. Just by demoting a specialist to a resource poor hospital, isn’t going to make up for govt’s serious lack of insight into this nation’s health sector. * * * And the eternal blame on doctors- “they don’t want to work in rural hospitals” How stupid! There was a case in recent years, wherein applications were invited from doctors to work in rural areas under govt. sector. For 800 posts, more than 8000 applications were received. * * * The last time they recruited permanent doctors in Andhra Pradesh, a surplus no. of doctors applied, a lot of them were left disappointed. It is only to get cheap labour that govt officials have devised this ingenious plan of new-age slavery (Bonded Medical Servitude). Because they know that govt will never spend so much on health, this bond will ensure the presence of surplus doctors, at every place. * * * PG education does not involve teaching in classrooms like in engg colleges, it only has bedside teaching, learning by doing, and seminars and CME programmes. Our teachers teach us, by treating patients. They are not paid exclusively for our training, they even have night duties. * * * During our 1 year of internship, and 3 years of Post Graduation, we are in direct contact with the patient, and we learn as we treat. And whom do we treat? How many rich or at least the middle class people come to govt hospitals? We treat the poor in our hospitals. No politician probably knows this, because they all go to 5-star hospitals. . * * * Medical education is unique in this regard, as while we are post graduates; we are already certified MBBS doctors, who treat patients under the guidance of our professors. We work long hours unlike any other profession, our night duties last 36 hours non-stop. And most of the time, we are standing during this time. It is hard to imagine what we go through as doctors, contrary to what is widely believed. We are in such pitiable situation where we don’t have Sundays and holidays, have to work daily during our PG, all 365 days are working days, except when we take leave. After all this, we would naturally want to spend our time with family. Is it too much to ask for? If we punish our children who have joined the medical profession with great compassion, willing to sacrifice a great deal of personal time, willing to endure ten or more years of constant study, there will be a time where a doctor is rare, plunging our society into an age where students will fear joining medicine for the long years of study, and look towards other branches. * * * So, how do we improve the health of rural India? Give doctors working in public sector in rural areas, permanent jobs; provide doctors with accommodation near rural hospitals (Quarters). Spend more of the country’s GDP on health, improve infrastructure, man power in terms of paramedical staff. Its not impossible to achieve a healthy India, it just needs political will. Health is not a promise to be made use of in Elections, that’s the real troublesome part of it. Rice, Incentives, Color TV sets, what-not? * But not health!
Posted on: Wed, 07 Aug 2013 17:36:22 +0000
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