Unjust demands of the Medicos

[Saradhi]

http://www.greatandhra.com/articles/medicos_strike.html



Many of you might have been following the news about the stir by medical students from Andhra Pradesh. Their charter of demands include, no new medical colleges, abolition of user fees in government hospitals and also doing away with the system of payment seats for post graduate students in private medical colleges. To go into the pros and cons of all their demands is beyond the scope of this column, but I would like to focus on the most atrocious of their demands – scrapping the user fees in the government hospitals.



This is one of the stupidest, arrogant, unthinking and self-serving demands ever made by any professional segment in a long time.



For those of you who don’t know the background behind these user fees, let me throw some light on the issue. As you all know only too well, in most of the government hospitals, the quality of service is dismal. To make matters worse, almost 90 % of the budget that is allotted to these hospitals go towards staff salaries and there are no resources left for either medicines or even simple diagnostic services.



On top of these problems, in our system of administration there is a huge disconnect between authority and accountability at every level in many areas - be it education, health care or any other public service. Especially lack of local accountability and oversight by the citizens who need the public services the most has hurt them tremendously.



To overcome some of these problems, the administration has initiated a few measures with a honest intention of changing the status quo – instituting user fees and constitution of hospital advisory committees were two such initiatives. The rationale behind imposing user fees is two fold:



a) To provide the local government hospital with badly needed additional resources,



b) To change the nature of relationship between the citizen and the hospital.



Many a time the poor and hapless citizen fails to realize that these services are being provided to him with his own tax money (paid indirectly) and instead mistakenly presumes that he is getting a free service. As a result the citizen rarely asserts his/her right and suffers the pain and humiliation heaped by the vast and powerful government bureaucracy. The moment a citizen pays some amount of money directly, he will feel a natural right to demand good quality service.



These user fees were in place for the past year or so and the initial feedback is that the citizens are more than happy to pay as long as the fees is reasonable and they get decent service! If the patients are willing to pay, why are the medicos complaining?



There in lies the tragedy of Indian health care. None of these medicos, who are being educated with scarce public resources, are interested in working in the government hospitals (there will always be a few exceptions). They don’t like the fact that the patients are getting more assertive and demanding value for their money. The only thing that a majority of these medicos are interested in is a free ride with the exchequers’ money and a cushy well paying career afterwards.



The unfortunate reality is that the common man on the street is paying well beyond his means to obtain even the most basic of health care services. Thanks to the failure of the public health system, these resources go to private medical practitioners. Some surveys done on the status of health care in India have conclusively proven that more than 40 % end up below the poverty line due to a single bout of hospitalization! And these families have to spend more than 50 % of their annual disposable income on this single bout of illness.



These are mind-boggling statistics, which ought to make any thinking citizen feel sick. Yet you rarely find anyone from the medical profession or even among the politicians who are in the midst of campaigning, talk about these issues. That is the sad status of public discourse in India; neither the public, nor the media ever get involved in any debate on issues of public importance. They are only interested in gossip, sensationalism and useless rhetoric.



The medicos have no right to make any demands on the government, even if some of them are legitimate.First let them fulfill their obligations and discharge their professional responsibilities prior to making additional demands on the society. This is not an isolated tirade against the medial profession – it applies equally to all segments and professions including those from the elite IITs and IIMs who re getting a free ride at the cost of tens of millions of youngsters.



Have your say Pals......................................

[visalandhra]

hello saradi,

I'm welcoming ur perception on medicos.I asking the medicos that "will they serve to poor with out taking their consultation fee, if they really interested to serve the poor ?(if they put a clinic)""and will they ready to go to rural areas to serve the poor?".They r backened by some political parties.their aggitation is prevent private medical colleges,if so what happens andhra student will go to karnataka.so where the money is going?to karnataka.this is the reason why the government giving private medical colleges.And there is no right to medicos to involve in the government polocies.if they have any objection they should go to the court.why they r not doing so?this has to be thinked by every one.and why they stopped the services in the hospitals?Is this the way they serving the poor?

[Saradhi]

hello saradi,
I'm welcoming ur perception on medicos.I asking the medicos that "will they serve to poor with out taking their consultation fee, if they really interested to serve the poor ?(if they put a clinic)""and will they ready to go to rural areas to serve the poor?".They r backened by some political parties.their aggitation is prevent private medical colleges,if so what happens andhra student will go to karnataka.so where the money is going?to karnataka.this is the reason why the government giving private medical colleges.And there is no right to medicos to involve in the government polocies.if they have any objection they should go to the court.why they r not doing so?this has to be thinked by every one.and why they stopped the services in the hospitals?Is this the way they serving the poor?

yes, I agree we should oppose the NRI quota in medical seats but not for private colleges why should we oppose private medical colleges that when so many students are rushing to other states to complete medicine, why should not we have college in AP to finish medicine here it self instead of going to other states?

It is redculous and all strike of these Jr.Doctors is politically motivated especially in this Elections time.



And I have one QUestion how many Doctors after completion of MBBS are staying IDNia and serving their mother land, especially the remote areas? Everybody want to run for US or UK or build corporate Hospitals in major cities. Who is ready to serve in rural areas?

If you are not ready to serve in rural areas, why are you crying for user charges in rural areas now?



They will have no Answer for this......They will pay for their act.