No Pill for this Ill

BM Hegde 25 January 2016

Does the medical profession really want society to be healthy?

Does this world, where business and money interests are supreme, want society to be healthy and tranquil? The answer is a big NO. No one wants to break her/his own rice bowl. The pharmaceutical industry, the most powerful lobby in the world today—thrice as big and powerful as the oil industry—will certainly not want people to be healthy. The medical profession is trying its best to make more and more people come into their net by ‘regular health check-ups’ of the healthy, run for the heart, run for cancer and so on; it is also doing its best to create iatrogenic illnesses. Hospitals, especially the corporate ones, seek more surgical post-operative complications, as the latter nets more money into their kitty than the original surgery itself.

Last year’s budget to treat non-fatal adverse drug reactions (ADRs) in Europe alone was $80 billion! Please give me one good reason why anyone should want to treat simple acne with azithromycin; but that is exactly what is done and on a long-term basis. A recent issue of The Times of India, in a front page news report, mentioned a study done in one Delhi medical college hospital, which showed that all (did I say all?) germs in the acne now have become resistant to azithromycin, a high-end antibiotic reserved for respiratory infections like pneumonia! Antibiotics are the time bombs waiting to explode anytime now.

Super-bugs, produced in hospital environments, are now threatening to make every hospital a death trap for terminally ill patients. Children in intensive care units (ICUs), in American hospitals, are dying like flies even with such silly germs like Clostridium difficile. This made a professor at Johns Hopkins recall an old Indian system in veterinary science—of feeding cows with severe infection with the dung of a healthy cow. She tried the same logic of normalising the bowel flora of seriously infected child with excreta from the mother of the child—or from any healthy person—fed through the Ryle’s tube to the sick child. She found it to be remarkably successful; this has now become a routine, called by a very dignified name—faecal microbiota transplant (FMT).

The non-science of Western medicine treats the human body as machine made from bits and pieces (parts of an engine). The human body is a dynamic whole working in tandem with its consciousness and environment. Most of our interventions upset both these tenets and land the poor patient in soup. Western medicine thinks that there is a ‘pill for every ill’ and a surgical correction for every defect. While this is not true, there is an ill following every pill, thus getting us, doctors, more clients to sell our wares. Therefore, most of what we do does not seem to do much good and, at times, more harm. Faith in the doctor is the one factor that stimulates our inner healer to heal the sick; thank God for that!

Our ancient healers had divine blessings and they did not charge any money from the patients. It was believed that if the healer charges for his services, his healing powers will decrease and, eventually, vanish! Today’s world believes that the more you charge, the better doctor you are. The root cause of all ills in society is human greed. A doctor, or engineer, is valued by the income that he makes.

I was reminded of the time when the ‘New World’ was discovered, thanks to India, the poor in Europe were trying to go the ‘New World’ in search of greener pastures. King Ferdinand, in France, made a statute which prohibited anyone who had learned jurisprudence to be barred from going there—to let people there remain happy and tranquil. How I wish he had barred the medical profession as well!

(Professor Dr BM Hegde, a Padma Bhushan awardee in 2010, is an MD, PhD, FRCP (London, Edinburgh, Glasgow & Dublin), FACC and FAMS.)

Comments

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Simple Indian

1 decade ago

Insightful article by Dr. Hegde, as always. He is one rare doctor who often questions the ethics in medical practice, and enlightens laypersons like me on the pitfalls in the medical system. Good health should be a fundamental right, and the Govt of India ought to ensure that every citizen has access to good affordable healthcare. But, as Dr. Hegde often says, medical profession has become more business-oriented than service-oriented. As he rightly states, ancient healers in India were highly respected for their cure as well as high ethics. They certainly didn't fleece their patients, as doctors do these days. Medical practice, like teaching, was once considered a noble profession and its practitioners commanded the highest respect in society. Unfortunately, both professions have been reduced to money-making machines, as was shown in several recent Hindi movies too. Wish our Govt would have an NHS (UK) type healthcare system, which is both reliable and affordable for the masses.

vnrao

1 decade ago

what is the solution govt unable to keep sanitation though collectin enormous taxes no proper drinking water no clean hospitals suggest people to die without going to doctors what is the solution suggest

Vaibhav Dhoka

1 decade ago

One should introspect and then take medical advise and not go by layman's advise.

pankaj jindal

1 decade ago

Dr Hegde is right to a very great extent.But generalising it is inappropriate.

I wonder who is at fault ,whether doctor or the corporate hospital where he is attached and is compelled to do unmentionable things.

What happened over the last 50 years? 50 years ago doctors were next to God .Now there is massive erosion of that good will.
1. people who donot deserve any decoration are able to lay hands on Padam vibhushan and padma bhushan.
They in turn like a bagpiper promote a battery of undeserving fellows. This makes a majority and the problem begins.

2. What about private medical colleges and the management quota. Are crores involved there ? Pl correct me if i am wrong? How to recover this money?Can this be stopped by stopping the management quota altogether?Again correct me if I am wrong.
3 Just see the internet how certain corporate houses make thousand of crores every year.
4 I worked with one of these hospitals .I was asked to admit patients when they needed no admission.
I was asked to investigate when none were needed .
I was asked to transfer the patient to ICU when none were necessary.
On top of that I was told the( corporte) hospitals are NOT accountable for anything."We(corporate) are here to make money"
So who is to blame, the business tycoon who owns the building called hospital or the doctor .
This will not be solved because doctor is a soft target and so at the receiving end and tycoon has "connections".
Dr Pankaj Jindal