The word corruption seems pale and worn out ; its overuse has blunted its sharpness ; it does not convey its explosive vicious hold on society. People are not fully aware that the foundation of the society is being rattled by corruption. It is not a matter of bribe-giving-and-taking, it has something to do with the integrity of the people and the development of the country.
The word corruption seems pale and worn out ; its overuse has blunted its sharpness ; it does not convey its explosive vicious hold on society. People are not fully aware that the foundation of the society is being rattled by corruption. It is not a matter of bribe-giving-and-taking, it has something to do with the integrity of the people and the development of the country.
Sometimes we are tempted to say “let the poor blokes be corrupt, let them line their pockets; nobody suffers, except losing may be a few hundred / thousand rupees.” But when we learn that the potholed roads and the dilapidated school buildings are a direct result of corruption, we are aghast.
Corruption gives us not only dilapidated school buildings but unqualified worthless teachers. Political corruption initiates and nurtures incompetent doctors, poorly trained surgeons, unethical medical attendants etc . It is shocking that we are at the mercy of such poorly qualified doctors who entered the medical colleges through corruption. The unnecessary deaths in the govt hospitals, the botched up surgeries, the burden on the poor patients with unnecessary expensive tests and costly drugs ; the shocking hygienic conditions in the corridors of the state hospitals, ; the delay in getting the body of your beloved from the mortuary – are the visible festering sores of a deadly disease, called corruption.
When a medical college receives a donation of 95 lakhs from a mediocre student to sell a medical seat out of the management quota, it is not a private dealing, it is a public breach of trust. It will impact society when the student leaves the medical college after five years and enters an operation theatre. He will certainly botch up the surgeries with his poor knowledge and lack of training, but nobody will accuse him of incompetence. The hospital will declare that in spite of the best efforts of the doctors, the patient could not be saved. The 95 lakhs will go on taking its toll, and legal murders will continue to be committed for a long time.
The corporate hospitals, trying to curry favor with the govt, heavily bribe the political higher ups and bureaucrats and then are forced to fleece the patients in multiple ways. Look at the tentacles of this corruption octopus. The mediocre drug company that sells its substandard drugs by bribing the doctors and the high profile companies that sell their high end equipments and drugs at an exorbitant price knowing well that the government will not initiate any action against them are partners with the unethical hospitals in corruption. The scan centers and test laboratories with the connivance of the doctors not only hike the prices unreasonably but give fake reports, as suggested by the doctors, which may result in perilous / faulty diagnosis.
When you file a complaint against the sloppy doctors in the government hospitals to the Dean, he declares that he will take action after an enquiry. You will never hear of it. He knows the doctors will desert the Casuality Ward the next morning if he dares to move against them. It is widely known that the nurses, attendants, ward boys, lab technicians, sweepers etc fleece the patients and abuse them, and offer poor services if the patients reported on them ; they are never punished or corrected. When you report it to the Dean, he comes out with his stock reply, “I am not aware of such things happening in this hospital. But be assured that the guilty will be punished after an enquiry.” You don’t suppose the promised enquiry will ever be held; if it were held, nobody will be punished. If you punish the para medical staff, they will give notice for a strike and the labor leaders will get busy to harass and blackmail the management and to protect the workers. The Dean will end up with an oral castigation from the Health Secretary and transferred to a remote government hospital where there is no access to drinking water.
Corruption is so pervasive that people have come to accept it as a part of daily life. People are willing partners in the crime syndicate. When the doctor demands Rs.100/- for issuing a fake medical certificate which may disrupt work in a factory or an office, you pay willingly without grudge. You wonder, when the doctor does not demand payment. When a doctor asks you to take the scan or a test in a particular facility, you don’t grudge. When a doctor prescribes certain drugs which are available only in a particular Chemist’s shop, you obey unquestioningly; you do not suspect the doctor gets a hefty commission on every pill that you swallow. Are you aware
certain medical shops, having huge stocks, approach the neighborhood doctors to prescribe to the gullible patients certain expensive vitamin tonics which are nearing the expiry dates? The doctors will be offered a good percentage on the sale proceeds.
The doctors on their part plead that the corporate houses insist that they produce business to the tune of a couple of thousand rupees every day by way of using the equipments, the labs, the sale of drugs etc; some of them insist that the patients patronize only the hospital canteens. A doctor in Chennai who specializes in diabetes sells his own brand of rice to his patients. Those who eat that particular brand are assured of a faster cure ?
The corporate hospitals know how to scare the health-conscious section of the society. They bombard the people through the newspapers and TV channels to warn them of complications of certain diseases, if you neglect ; which means if you don’t visit the hospital - it will lead to deadly consequences which scares the patients. They are forced to visit the doctors, pay a hefty sum and get assured that they are normal.
Scaring the patients is common; tempting them is altogether different. Profuse hair growth, a slim body, a glowing skin and virility are some of the promises made by the fake doctors. A number of fatty women who enter the hospitals to get slimmer versions of themselves often are fished out of the mortuaries. The hospitals always declare: in spite of the best medical care we provided…etc.
The economic experts bemoan the population increase; if only India had half of its present population, it will overtake the USA in material prosperity. But for childless couples this is cacophony. After five years of marriage, they await the arrival of a baby desperately and they are ready to pay out their life’s savings to any quack or qualified doctor who promises an early pregnancy by any medical miracle, test tube baby, a surrogate mother etc. The hospitals prey on them and extract huge amounts under various heads.
When the donation-paying doctors themselves are poorly equipped, the quacks pose a graver problem. There are universities whose distant education centers dole out degrees against a single bulk payment, bypassing all academic criteria. Apart from the quacks and fake doctors, there are any number of nurses, ward boys, ayahs, even sweepers who practice medicine on the sidelines, doing abortions on the sly and killing unsuspecting young mothers.
As the emphasis is not on prevention but on treatment, the ugly Indians have pervaded the medical profession; it is time they are isolated and eradicated, and hospitals are sanitized, germ- free and corruption- free.