I gave up my life to learn how to save yours – the story of a doctor’s life.
I wanted to write about a doctor’s life and their struggle, misconceptions about them, the rising violence against doctors and how we should treat them like God. My daughter, being a doctor and facing a lot of these issues on a day to day basis, has motivated me to share my thoughts on this.
I have always seen people discussing that XYZ doctor has cheated them. Human mentality is that they don’t want to spend a single penny on their health but they will not mind spending money on branded clothes like Manish Malhotra, Sabyasachi. People will spend half of their salary on liquor and cigarettes without any regret. They will never mind spending millions on interior designers but very much mind on giving consultancy fees to doctor. Everyone needs to think on this.
If a student wants to become doctor he has to start his preparation at the age of 15. By the time they become a practicing doctor they are 30. While all their are peers enjoying life, a doctor has to engrossed in studying. It takes almost 15 precious years to become good doctor.
My son is an engineer passed out from IIT Delhi. I haven’t seen him working as hard as my daughter who is always studying to become a good doctor. She understands that she has to deal with a human. You can’t undo anything in medicine so you have to be very thorough and up to date with the current medical diagnosis. Being a doctor is never easy. It requires lots of efforts, patience and perseverance, not just to become a doctor, but to stay a practicing doctor as well. After dedicating precious years to medical science a doctor is getting half salary as compared to an IITian. Any engineer while working on a machine first ensures that the machine is turned off before making any changes, whereas a doctor has to operate on a working machine and even the slightest mistakes can cause a tragedy. The stakes are enormous and the pay is meagre. This needs to be rectified.
Reservations should be stopped immediately in medical colleges. In medical stream you can’t compare a student getting 95% and 20%. But sometimes 20% gets into a medical college and someone getting 95% doesn’t. Policy makers go to US or Europe for treatments but normal people may get treated by reservation doctors as unreserved category doctors are already overloaded.
Most cases of doctors being negligent is mainly due to the exhaustion and the heavy workload of being a doctor. They are not provided the facilities that they require, in some cases even the basic amenities are not made available to them, but they are expected to be at their best all the time.
Doctors Role during Pandemic
Doctors are in the frontline of the battle against coronavirus pandemic. Many doctors have lost their lives by treating coronavirus patients and by neglecting their own health. Doctors who are treating corona patients even have to stay away from their loved ones.
Violence against doctors
People in India believe more in quacks for treating ailments but when the case deteriorates they rush to doctors. If some misfortune happens they start harassing doctors verbally or physically. Strict law should be made against assaulters. I request everyone to believe in doctors and to not trust the quacks. Doctors are here to treat you, not to cheat you. Charges of government hospitals are less because they run on government funds whereas private hospitals are costly because all the expenses are born by them only as medical equipments are very expensive.
Hope will like the post. If unknowingly I hurt anyone please excuse me. Correct me wherever I’m wrong. Feedback and suggestions are always welcome.