Episode 4: Medical Intentional Malpractice

@ -Vishwa- ...yes...the head of MCI was just weird...he had nothing to say...i think he thought AK would just praise him...atleast AK grilled him pretty good👏

Some doctors thought this episode was anti-doctors and some people living in USA (!) are questioning representation of facts in this episode comparing it to what they see in US!🤪

This episode was about medical malpractices in India and as much as doctors protest, the fact is whatever that was shown was true!

Yes scams start from admission to medical colleges themselves, where one can easily secure seat in private medical colleges by paying couple of lakhs of rupees. Doctors sometimes deliberately keep patients in ICU so that they can charge more money! My father, who's a senior medical officer himself, told me how docs sometimes even keep patient in ICU for days, even after he's dead! Just so they can charge more money for keeping the person in ICU. Operations are conducted without consent - of either patient or family member, there are umpteen cases of negligence, many times person is not treated at all even after conducting so-called operation.

They make patients go in for various ''tests'' even when not needed. Or insist on getting tests from a specific lab only. There is evidence of nexus between doctors, pathological labs, pharma companies.

People did share their experiences with doctors in this thread after the show's telecast. Even medical students IN INDIA contributed to the thread and shared how authorities bribe officials when they come to conduct inspection at their colleges and hospitals.

Drug scams and frauds of pharma companies in India - some media reports:

- Drugs scam: Pharmaceutical companies wrote letters signed by doctors? - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-10/india/31654810_1_drug-companies-cdsco-drug-expert

- A doctor's blog post on scams and medical malpractices in India - http://blog.drmalpani.com/2012/05/drugs-scam-in-india-and-how-to-fix.html

- A report from The Independent on how drug companies use illiterate and poor people in India for drug trials without even their consent - http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/asia/without-consent-how-drugs-companies-exploit-indian-guinea-pigs-6261919.html

- Another article on nexus between doctors and pharma companies in India (and doctors trying their best to defend themselves!) - http://www.expresshealthcare.in/201010/market25.shtml

- DGCI approving one drug a month without clinical trials: Panel report - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-05-09/india/31640572_1_clinical-trials-drug-controller-general-cdsco

- Article on how 25 people lost their lives in unethical clinical trials by pharma companies and only 5 were paid compensation by pharma companies - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-06-06/india/29624892_1_clinical-trials-drug-controller-general-dcgi

- Doctors earn gratuity for prescribing pill - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2004-12-24/hyderabad/27157055_1_doctor-pharmaceutical-companies-pharmaceutical-firms

- Drugs: Curative or lucrative (another article on nexus between pharma companies and docs) - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2003-09-09/mumbai/27177407_1_drug-promotion-influence-doctors-pharma-companies

- Indian drug regulator accused of malpractice - Financial Times - http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3aa8af96-99c8-11e1-8fce-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1wKkjDfj4

- Pharma firms dictate what doctors prescribe: Study - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2003-09-09/mumbai/27195343_1_influence-doctors-drug-promotion-pharma-companies

- 'Gifts' to docs: Govt to meet drug cos -

Excerpt: Companies dole out huge amounts in the form of freebies, gifts, jaunts to promote drugs so that doctors prescribe their use to patients. These promotional costs form a huge component in the price of a drug. Promotional expenses also include trade margins, which the government has been trying to cap for sometime now. There are certain drugs sold in the market on which margins may be levied by retailers and wholesalers between 5 to 1000%, leading to a mark-up on prices. A medicine crosses different layers and sub-layers in the trade before it reaches a consumer.

So if the manufacturing cost of a medicine strip is Rs 2, may be sold at Rs 50 in the market.

Link - http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2009-01-13/india/28057375_1_drug-companies-trade-margins-influence-doctors

[These are not just in context of Satyamev Jayate episode. But also to illustrate how scams do take place in India. Pharma companies are not all research and development! Bribing etc. is possible and very much there in India. Indian conditions can't be compared to the USA. Nor can episodes of SMJ be judged on basis of what happens in foreign countries!]

Here's an organisation called ''People for Better Treatment'' (started by doctors only). And they have lauded Aamir Khan for exposing the truth in this episode of Satyamev Jayate and condemned those who attacked him for ''spoiling'' image of medical profession - http://pbtindia.com/archives/1561

As for medical malpractices in India - whole books have been written by doctors themselves on what unethical practices are followed by doctors in India, one of them is this - http://thelastpolymath.com/doctor.html

[Doctors suddenly start talking about hard work they do or years they spend in training for this profession. I'd like to know why some members of their own fraternity are speaking openly about malpractices in their profession?! Is any report about unethical practices by doctors fake? Can they say whatever that was shown in Satyamev Jayate never happens at all? Can they say confidently that all media reports on medical malpractices in India fake? The show did not generalise all doctors as butchers! But it did expose unethical practices followed by some doctors. Nothing wrong in what they showed!]

Healthcare: Do or Die [Column from Asian Age]

Nine years ago, on a sultry afternoon, inside an unused warehouse on the outskirts of the temple town of Tiruchirapally, I had a conversation with an young mother I will never forget. She was a Sri Lankan Tamil refugee, one of the many who had fled a civil war in her island home so that her children could have a better future. Now, this warehouse-turned-refugee camp was her home. "If I had money, I could do many things. But if I have just '10, I know how I will spend it — an egg, and an exercise book for my child," she said. I remember her because she showed conviction and clarity in face of adversity.
I thought of the woman last Sunday while watching Aamir Khan's Satyamev Jayate. The programme showcased a lightning rod issue: the horrific and spreading menace of medical malpractices in India told through real-life anecdotes of predatory doctors and clinics and hapless patients.
The response to the programme strengthens the case for clarity in the ongoing debate on Universal Health Coverage (UHC), one of the UPA government's more inspirational ideas. There is a vision. But clarity? We are still waiting. On the face of it, everything is going swimmingly. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh talks about his resolve to do more for healthcare. India affirmed its support to UHC at the World Health Assembly in Geneva last week. The topic was a big draw. Everything seems to be going hunky-dory. But some of India's best-known health advocates are worried. Why?
Last week, activist doctor Binayak Sen and his wife Ilina Sen, also a public health advocate, gave a hint of what is simmering beneath the surface by expressing their reservations publicly about the way the UHC idea was shaping up in a signed article in the Week.
Like many public health advocates in the country, the Sens endorse the recommendations of the High Level Expert Group (HLEG) for UHC, set up by the Planning Commission in 2010, to work out a framework for the UHC. The HLEG report calls for an increase in public spending on health from 1.2 per cent of the GDP to 2.5 per cent of the GDP in the 12th Five Year Plan, and to three per cent by the end of 2022. It proposes that every Indian citizen should "be entitled to essential primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare services that will be guaranteed by the Central government". The Expert Group has suggested that a panel of experts should determine the National Health Package taking into account the resource availability as well as the healthcare needs of the country.
Who would offer these healthcare services? The HLEG recommends that such services be made available through the public sector and contracted-in private facilities (including NGOs and non-profits).
Now, the plot thickens. Another group of experts, the Planning Commission's Steering Committee on Health for the 12th Five Year Plan, have come out with their report as well. This group has a somewhat different take on how to implement the UHC on the ground. From Dr Sen's article, it appears that these two groups, with their two separate reports, are not on the same page on key issues.
What is going on? Talking to several people following the UHC discussion closely, I got the impression that the differences between the two sets of experts centres on some eternally prickly issues — who will pay for this grand scheme? Will it be the Centre or the state governments that will eventually cough up most of the additional money required to put the scheme in place? The HLEG thinks it should be the Centre. Apparently, the Planning Commission's committee on health, which also has a few civil society activists, wants the state governments to pay more. HLEG supporters say that asking bankrupt state governments to foot the bill is effectively aborting the UGC. Then, there is the question of how to mesh the public and private sector to make the UHC happen in a cost-effective and transparent way.The two groups differ. The HLEG wants more of a role for the government, whereas the Planning Commission's latest document roots for public-private-partnership with the private sector taking up a chunkier role in public health.
All this is disheartening. India has woeful health indicators. Most Indians have no health insurance. Most pay for treatment out of their pocket. A woman who works as a part-time cook in my neighbourhood told me tearfully that she had to let her mother die, because the family did not have the money to pay for the medicines and hospitalisation any longer. No one in any civilised country should have to let this happen.
Look at our neighbour, China, with whom we are constantly comparing ourselves. At the World Health Assembly, the Chinese health minister said basic medical and health security system now covers 1.295 billion people, more than 95 per cent of China's total population.
The next few months will be critical. The 12th Plan's chapter on health is likely to be finalised in the coming weeks. The plan itself will then be reviewed by the National Development Council, chaired by Dr Singh and chief ministers of various states, for endorsement. The final shape of the 12th Plan will be known only around July 2012. There is time to sort out the differences between the different sets of experts.
The bottomline: India needs healthcare that is accessible, affordable, and we have a right to demand that we are not exploited when we seek treatment. One key reason the Chinese government has been spending so much public money on health has been to take the burden of families so that they spend more in the domestic economy.
Satyamev Jayate showed how emotive healthcare costs and malpractices are becoming. With 2014 not so far away, UPA-2 could add some much-needed sheen to itself, and the country's image, by taking up universal healthcare. Now is the time to show some conviction and clarity, like the young refugee woman whose words still ring so fresh.

Source

[There is politics going on over who would bear costs for health care! Centre or State!😲 Gross! 🤢]

@ annika20 ...thanks so much for all the information...including your father's testimony...sad reality of india is actually the sad reality of many nations and even the US...just that some countries have discouraged this practice by punishing the doctors who take part in these actions...one point that was mentioned in the show and in your articles...is Universal Health Coverage...that has not even happened in the US...but there are nations that have done it...so we know its not impossible...