The much - awaited inspection of private medical establishments under the new Act that is aimed at regulating private medical practice has begun. One of the main components of this new Act is the registration and inspection of all private medical establishments for which we have all been made to pay a hefty fee almost a year ago. My consultation room too was inspected last fortnight and thankfully it passed the muster of the inspecting officials who seemed relieved that my academic qualifications were in accordance with what I had claimed to have studied.
Since our profession has been riddled with quacks, I have always been of the opinion that there should be one central body with powers to check the credentials of all medical practitioners from time to time and decide whether they can be allowed to practice or not. I was happy that the government had at last woken up to this need by establishing this registry.
But when I read the fine print in the provisions of the new Act, I was dismayed to find that there was sufficient room in its by - laws for all kinds of the most dangerous, uneducated and even illiterate quacks to stand shoulder to shoulder with some of the highest qualified medical professionals. So now, alongside your physician, your cardiothoracic surgeon, your gynecologist and your paediatrician, stand your aroma therapist, your colour therapist, your herbal sexologist and your burly masseur too, who may not have seen the insides of a school at all. But the new law in its present form has provisions to allow them all to practice. At a slightly safer distance, of course, with the due legal protection of a surrogate service board, there is enough standing and practicing room for door – step - service abortionists too.
Yes there are scores of them right here in our city making a good living by snuffing away innocent lives even before they are born. We doctors know about their presence and their activities from the occasional bungled up cases that land in proper hospitals in the middle of the night. When I made enquiries from some of the government officials, whom I happen to meet from time to time, about what the government has done to weed out quackery in the past one year since the new rules were framed, they were not able to give any convincing replies. All that one person nervously mumbled was that our district administration was keen on “setting right” all right qualified doctors before literally “setting right” the quacks by “awarding” them rights to unhindered practice by officially registering them.
Qualified doctors happen to be soft targets who prefer to avoid unpleasant confrontations. This explains why we have all, like sheep going to the slaughterhouse, accepted the new regulatory rules in toto without any united attempt to protest against the injustice to the dignity of our profession. One of the most shameful stipulations in the new law is the mandatory need to display a board in our clinics and hospitals giving the details of the fees chargeable for our services. This lowers the status of our clinics and hospitals to that of roadside eateries where a rate board is not even mandatory.
When we have begun to accept all this, what it does to the dignity of our profession is best left unsaid. Has any one from the medical profession reacted to this humiliation even with a whimper if not with the roar that should have been expected from a body of highly qualified professionals? Already, while qualified doctors are still blinking in confusion at their plight, all the quacks who are certainly more awake and alert than us, are coming together under the banner of a national body called the “Private Medical Practitioners Association” with a hefty membership fee of Rupees five thousand each, to safeguard their interests. Since quackery is a very murky domain of the most unscrupulous elements who will not stop short of any unhealthy ploys to keep themselves in good health, I am of the opinion that all the officials of the State administration will not be able to weed it out, if qualified doctors just stand and watch like mute bystanders.
It is downright shameful that representatives of the medical profession who have been included in the official bodies that have been constituted to draft regulatory rules, have not done anything to uphold the dignity of the profession. It is time for all doctors, both government and private, to unite under one umbrella and resist any humiliating rules and regulations that are imposed on us. Even the frequent utterances of our Minister for Medical Education that he plans to bar government doctors from pursuing private practice after their working hours is counterproductive. It will only deny the services of some very good and experienced doctors to patients who would be willing to pay for them. It will also encourage bribery because government doctors who feel that they are not as well off financially as private doctors will be tempted to make quick money during working hours.
And, may I ask why only doctors have been selected for this regulatory move when there is no effective system in place to regulate “private practice” in other professions like teaching where tuition classes are thriving? As long as a government doctor does full justice to his or her job during working hours, it should not be the business of the government to worry about what he or she does afterwards. Since the doctor - patient relationship always has a personal element too, is the right of every patient to have access to a doctor of his or her choice at all times.
And conversely, it is the professional privilege and pride too for every doctor to be able to render his or her services round – the - clock if he or she so desires. The government no doubt has a role to play in regulating healthcare but it should not be allowed to step on our toes and on our dignity. Very often in blind enthusiasm or ignorance, it oversteps its brief and that is when it becomes necessary for us to put our foot down firmly and show it its place and ours too. And, the ball clearly is in our court now.
