3. UNNECESSARY PROCEDURES/OPERATIONS/SURGERIES
A GP from a metropolitan city says, 'After admitting a case of diarrhoea, on the first day itself some doctors administer ten to twelve different kinds of tablets to the patient. I use at most three medicines, which are usually sufficient. But nowadays even when there is no need, lots of medicines are prescribed. When one takes gifts from pharmaceutical companies, the strain is on the patients' pockets, and they end up consuming unnecessary medicines. This is also dangerous!'
Such views are echoed by Dr Shyam Kagal, a physician from Pune. He says, 'I know a gastroenterologist who performs numerous endoscopies on the same patient, when one is sufficient! He adds, 'The Random Sugar Test is not the ideal test on the basis of which the patients' medication dose can be adjusted. Nevertheless, many physicians perform it.'
This is true of psychiatry as well. Dr Sumit Das, a psychiatrist from Kolkata, reveals, 'In over 80 per cent of cases of depression, when the patient experiences headaches, even though the physician knows that the patient suffers from depression, MRIs and CT scans are performed on all such patients. '
' A GP from a big city regrets that 'nowadays even malpractice has become creative. Ingenious schemes are devised for "cut"-based practice. One patient turned up at a hospital and it was decided to perform a hernia operation, as he had been diagnosed with hernia. But it wasn't a hernia at all! Sometimes even when there is no serious ailment, a pretence of surgery is performed. Nothing is really wrong with the patient. But he is given anaesthesia and some stitches are put on the skin, to show that an "operation" has been done. A huge, completely unnecessary bill is charged. ' 'Unfortunately, we doctors have pharmaceutical companies as teachers,' laments Dr Gautam Mistry, a cardiologist in Kolkata. 'There is a need to quickly set up an independent mechanism which will play this role, whereby every year doctors can prescribe those medicines only after studying through this system (the system could also be online), not after having been tutored by medical representatives.
A GP from a metropolitan city says, 'After admitting a case of diarrhoea, on the first day itself some doctors administer ten to twelve different kinds of tablets to the patient. I use at most three medicines, which are usually sufficient. But nowadays even when there is no need, lots of medicines are prescribed. When one takes gifts from pharmaceutical companies, the strain is on the patients' pockets, and they end up consuming unnecessary medicines. This is also dangerous!'
Such views are echoed by Dr Shyam Kagal, a physician from Pune. He says, 'I know a gastroenterologist who performs numerous endoscopies on the same patient, when one is sufficient! He adds, 'The Random Sugar Test is not the ideal test on the basis of which the patients' medication dose can be adjusted. Nevertheless, many physicians perform it.'
This is true of psychiatry as well. Dr Sumit Das, a psychiatrist from Kolkata, reveals, 'In over 80 per cent of cases of depression, when the patient experiences headaches, even though the physician knows that the patient suffers from depression, MRIs and CT scans are performed on all such patients. '
' A GP from a big city regrets that 'nowadays even malpractice has become creative. Ingenious schemes are devised for "cut"-based practice. One patient turned up at a hospital and it was decided to perform a hernia operation, as he had been diagnosed with hernia. But it wasn't a hernia at all! Sometimes even when there is no serious ailment, a pretence of surgery is performed. Nothing is really wrong with the patient. But he is given anaesthesia and some stitches are put on the skin, to show that an "operation" has been done. A huge, completely unnecessary bill is charged. ' 'Unfortunately, we doctors have pharmaceutical companies as teachers,' laments Dr Gautam Mistry, a cardiologist in Kolkata. 'There is a need to quickly set up an independent mechanism which will play this role, whereby every year doctors can prescribe those medicines only after studying through this system (the system could also be online), not after having been tutored by medical representatives.
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