KEM Hospital, Nair Hospital, JJ Hospital are all teaching hospitals, and procedures like angioplasty are performed there too. If well supported, these teaching hospitals can easily do better than all these corporate and multi-speciality hospitals. In that case, we should increase the facilities in these government hospitals. But our elected representatives ... have now become self-representatives. The facilities in public hospitals are not improved. Government hospitals are being ruined through deliberate neglect. Just as MTNL is being killed off so that private mobile companies can profit ... the government hospitals are being neglected so that corporate hospitals may benefit. Now see ... the radiology unit and lab have been outsourced by two of the largest public hospitals in Mumbai. Why was this done? The same reason—to promote the private sector. How can the poor afford this? One does not understand. Why would private hospitals do anything for free? Of course they avoid giving free services; there is no doubt about it. The history of these corporate hospitals and the influence they wield is frightening. My father established an association for a particular medical condition. It set up a hospital for the poor in a small building in Mahim, Mumbai. Members of the association were charged concessional rates for all services. When I was working there, my OPD would be the most crowded; people would queue up from 5 a.m. But then the hospital was taken over by a corporate hospital. Since it was a hospital run by a trust, they could not buy it directly. So then they took over the management of the association. They paid the membership fees of our lower-level staff to enrol them as members, and got a majority of votes in favour of corporate takeover. For the general body meeting of the association, the lower-level staff was brought there in buses, and subsequently they were taken to an expensive hotel for lunch. The doctors were also no different from the administration. Many of them would sign without even examining the patient and prepare a bill. They would do this with inpatients and patients in the operation theatre. Such doctors, too, happily joined the corporate bandwagon and also
Such doctors, too, happily joined the corporate bandwagon and also voted for it. And thus the corporate lobby finally took over the hospital management, and built a separate twelve-storey, air-conditioned hospital building. Hospitalization there for just two days would cost around Rs C npyrohrer 50,000. I could not bear to see this, and resigned. Then they, too, were unable to manage the hospital—it has now been taken over by Fortis. It is not just corporate hospitals, what is going on all around is uns eakable• violations occur everywhere.
It is not just corporate hospitals, what is going on all around is unspeakable; violations occur everywhere. I will give you an example from Pune. A judge was about to be appointed to a higher post and as part of the process went to a well- known doctor appointed by the government for this purpose. The doctor declared the judge unfit, saying that his blood pressure was high. The judge was angry. He checked his blood pressure elsewhere: it was normal! So he went back and confronted the doctor. The doctor told him without embarrassment, 'Will you be able to pay me X amount of money?' The judge shot back, 'Tomorrow I will be presiding as a judge. Should I change my judgement because one of the parties in a case comes to me with money? I will go to Mumbai and get a genuine certificate from another doctor. I will try not just once but ten times, and I will of course never give any money. And once I get a genuine certificate, I will file a suit against you.' This is the state of affairs with a famous, senior doctor! Another example, from Mumbai this time, of an MD in pathology. Acting on the suggestion of the doctor who had referred a patient to him,
Another example, from Mumbai this time, of an MD in pathology. Acting on the suggestion of the doctor who had referred a patient to him, this pathologist gave a fake report declaring that the patient was diabetic when his blood sugar was normal! A fake pathology report, being given by a MD in pathology! Why did the concerned general practitioner do this? Because the patient would now become the lifelong patient of the general practitioner. This is what goes on nowadays. And tell me ... there are private medical colleges which charge lakhs of rupees as capitation fees for admission. Most of those who take admission in such colleges are rolling in money. After graduating from such a college, what does such a doctor think about? He will extract lakhs of rupees from the patients' pockets. This situation must change! It is no longer possible for a poor student to get a medical education. If a poor student is admitted, one can at least hope that he will have some sensitivity towards other human beings. Even this is merely hope, of course, not a certainty. Nowadays one cannot trust anybody.
Such doctors, too, happily joined the corporate bandwagon and also voted for it. And thus the corporate lobby finally took over the hospital management, and built a separate twelve-storey, air-conditioned hospital building. Hospitalization there for just two days would cost around Rs C npyrohrer 50,000. I could not bear to see this, and resigned. Then they, too, were unable to manage the hospital—it has now been taken over by Fortis. It is not just corporate hospitals, what is going on all around is uns eakable• violations occur everywhere.
It is not just corporate hospitals, what is going on all around is unspeakable; violations occur everywhere. I will give you an example from Pune. A judge was about to be appointed to a higher post and as part of the process went to a well- known doctor appointed by the government for this purpose. The doctor declared the judge unfit, saying that his blood pressure was high. The judge was angry. He checked his blood pressure elsewhere: it was normal! So he went back and confronted the doctor. The doctor told him without embarrassment, 'Will you be able to pay me X amount of money?' The judge shot back, 'Tomorrow I will be presiding as a judge. Should I change my judgement because one of the parties in a case comes to me with money? I will go to Mumbai and get a genuine certificate from another doctor. I will try not just once but ten times, and I will of course never give any money. And once I get a genuine certificate, I will file a suit against you.' This is the state of affairs with a famous, senior doctor! Another example, from Mumbai this time, of an MD in pathology. Acting on the suggestion of the doctor who had referred a patient to him,
Another example, from Mumbai this time, of an MD in pathology. Acting on the suggestion of the doctor who had referred a patient to him, this pathologist gave a fake report declaring that the patient was diabetic when his blood sugar was normal! A fake pathology report, being given by a MD in pathology! Why did the concerned general practitioner do this? Because the patient would now become the lifelong patient of the general practitioner. This is what goes on nowadays. And tell me ... there are private medical colleges which charge lakhs of rupees as capitation fees for admission. Most of those who take admission in such colleges are rolling in money. After graduating from such a college, what does such a doctor think about? He will extract lakhs of rupees from the patients' pockets. This situation must change! It is no longer possible for a poor student to get a medical education. If a poor student is admitted, one can at least hope that he will have some sensitivity towards other human beings. Even this is merely hope, of course, not a certainty. Nowadays one cannot trust anybody.
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