Over the years, my family has contributed to the bank accounts of several medical practitioners. Save for the really serious and scary illnesses (much to my dismay, I might add), between the four of us, we've managed to have pretty much every illness in the books. And managed to visit numerous doctors and hospitals to boot.
Which is why I was rather startled to discover a new side to Indian doctors some time back. Someone in the family is undergoing treatment for something (forthcoming, ain't I? it's not me, by the way) and has been visiting a new doctor (by new, I mean we hadn't honoured this particular place with our patronage previously).
So anyway, this particular chap has been prescribing medicines to us, and as our habit is, we've been coming back home and looking up those medicines on the 'net. (Have I not told you how useful the thing is?!?) And as it turns out, this doctor is not as forthcoming as we'd like him to be. He has prescribed two drugs, one which is for something entirely different from the presenting problem, and another one which can have serious side effects if used for a long time.
Now maybe these medicines are what is needed for our situation, but that does not mean he can give any freaking drug without even explaining to us why he's doing so or what possible consequences there could as a result of these drugs.
My father tells this is very typical of Indian doctors; they like to believe we're all ignorant buffoons and don't need to be told anything beyond the very obvious. I think it's utterly irresponsible of them to do so. Not everyone looks up their prescribed medicines like we do, and there is always the chance that things could go very wrong with the consumption of these drugs. And it amazes me that these doctors can be such idiots.
Which is why I was rather startled to discover a new side to Indian doctors some time back. Someone in the family is undergoing treatment for something (forthcoming, ain't I? it's not me, by the way) and has been visiting a new doctor (by new, I mean we hadn't honoured this particular place with our patronage previously).
So anyway, this particular chap has been prescribing medicines to us, and as our habit is, we've been coming back home and looking up those medicines on the 'net. (Have I not told you how useful the thing is?!?) And as it turns out, this doctor is not as forthcoming as we'd like him to be. He has prescribed two drugs, one which is for something entirely different from the presenting problem, and another one which can have serious side effects if used for a long time.
Now maybe these medicines are what is needed for our situation, but that does not mean he can give any freaking drug without even explaining to us why he's doing so or what possible consequences there could as a result of these drugs.
My father tells this is very typical of Indian doctors; they like to believe we're all ignorant buffoons and don't need to be told anything beyond the very obvious. I think it's utterly irresponsible of them to do so. Not everyone looks up their prescribed medicines like we do, and there is always the chance that things could go very wrong with the consumption of these drugs. And it amazes me that these doctors can be such idiots.
5 comments:
Yep.
nani had the same problem with the nearby doctor - Neelkanth hospital? The prescribed her some BP medicines that were unnecessary or something. There was a bit of tension in the middle. Then at the insitute for spinal/heart whatsits (the one near mahipalpur) they set things right.
hi! i read ur last ten entries and i like the way u write..good work!
Why thank you! :)
Do I know you by the way? And do keep commenting on the other posts too...
Cheers...
@Ziggy:
Strange... it's the idiots at the spinal place who are giving these weird medicines to us!
Doctors! They are nothing BUT a bunch of irresponsible weirdo’s. Grand papa was in hospital recently (Reason for the late comment) and seeing NO improvement for some days, we wanted to take a second opinion, but when we asked for a case summary (a kind of a summary that contains the clinical diagnosis to what treatment is presently being given), that bloody son of a bitch gave us all kind of weird excuses from "lemme talk to the doc u wanna consult" to blatantly telling me “who are U to ask me all kinds of questions?” to my utter HORROR!. That is when my uncle (a lawyer) intervened and told him it was our right to consult any doc we wish to that is when that Fu#k@ing Doc gave us the case summary and we got him the right treatment and thanks to that asshole, he is doing fine now. Did someone say that a Doctor is a White collar Profession?
Ps: Sorry for the Abuses Traveler.
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