medico vortex

Its often seen that people are suffering from various health issues and on the other hand there is advancement in technology and medical tourism is on the increase in India especially people from overseas who flock the hospitals and get cheaper , faster and probably better treatment for the dollars they pay as compared to back home.The medical insurance firms start rocking and all cylinders start firing to let this vicious cycle moving.
The doctors are on the look out for the 1st sheep to slaughter and bingo the next minute we have a patient with hypertension, diabetes and cholesterol which he may not have checked. Docs put a few instruments here and there, give a short burst of medical jargon that frightens the poor patient and he jumps out of his skin and next comes a list of drugs prescribed on a treatment sheet.If you are by chance taking some already they jump up in numbers or simply another medication from a " preferred " company is suggested stating it has better effects or its cheap etc etc.Fearing health and wanting to live at any cost our poor cattle goes to the extent of taking a loan to buy those expensive drugs at times.There may be a lot of free samples given to our docs but they seldom give it to the needy.
Thereafter if you have an ache or a pain especially in the chest region or bones then bingo .....x rays, ecg, ct scan, mri and xyz are all recommended from" preferred" clinics.There beyond another list of medicines flow and you have more medicines in your blood stream than blood and water.Knee replacement, angioplasty and angiography are in vogue and before you realize you are 500000 Rs poorer.Ah! If you have a "cashless" medical insurance then you are ripped.At least you could say I got my return on investment and used other peoples premium to pay of my bills:))
Backstage there is a small channel of commissions, paybacks, lucrative gifts;and foreign jaunts in the waiting for most of the links in this chain.Medical reps of rich drug companies that have infinite profits,referrals given to doctor colleagues, 10% sharing of the invoice value, meeting the target through required and non required tests especially Pathology where the frequency and number of tests are mind boggling.
What does one do?Go to the US for medical tourism when he cannot even afford the Indian bills?Sonia Gandhi, Salman khan, Sharukh Khan, all politicos do go abroad for such checkups and surgeries when people prefer the other way round.I wonder what does the hypocritic oath then stand for???
Most of the medical fraternity nowadays is out to skin every patient and make him a guinea pig in my opinion.We are just walking into a blind alley and hoping that there is light at the other end.How the ride through the tunnel is -anybody's guess?
We normally are supposed to trust the family doctor........if we have one!!If we don't the trip given to you is a well conducted and nicely orchestrated medico tour with a black eye in the center of that vortex that sucks every drop of blood you have in your body. Long live mankind...............