The Good, Bad and the Ugly side of the noble profession- Time to amputate
Since the onslaught of the pandemic, several doctors, nurses and front line health workers have done unthinkable humanitarian service and saved several million people, risking their own lives.
The Indian Medical Association (IMA), a voluntary organization of medical professionals, on May 17, 2021 released a list of doctors who died in the line of duty, battling the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. In the first wave of pandemic in 2020, nearly 750 doctors had succumbed to the disaster. IMA also claimed that the second wave of Covid-19 has claimed the lives of almost 270 doctors. The list includes K K Agarwal, a 62 year old, former national president of the IMA, who died on May 17.
MoS Health, Ashwini Choubey said in the Rajya Sabha that 162 doctors, 107 nurses and 44 ASHA workers died due to Covid in India till January, 2021.
There could be a mismatch in the figures of the causality reported, but the fact remains that several doctors, nurses and healthcare workers sacrificed their lives while helping their countrymen to fight the disease and survive.
IMA has demanded that the Indian government to treat those doctors who succumbed to Covid-19 as martyrs, as they stood up for the people of the country.
The above is the commendable good side of the medical profession, which is justifiably hailed as the noble profession. Doctors are revered, respected, compared and equated next to God Almighty.
Do the doctors of today really enter the profession with an intention of serving the people rather than just treating it like a business to mint money? Some recent isolated reports make one to think over carefully, before answering this question.
Recent reports about the unethical and disgusting conduct of some of the black sheeps from the noble profession compel one to become concerned. If this bad and ugly trend is not nipped right now with a heavy hand, it may lead to far reaching consequences.
The Bengaluru Municipal Corporation terminated the services of a lady doctor, for allegedly stealing Covishield vaccine from a Primary Health Centre. This doctor was recruited on contract basis under the Union government’s National Health Mission Scheme. The modus of operandi adopted by the doctor was outrageous and unthinkable. For the people who turned up to take the second dosage of the vaccine, instead of administering the full dosage, she just administered half of the prescribed dosage for free and she saved the other half and charged Rs. 500 per shot. This doctor was arrested subsequently and now under investigation. My younger sister and my brother-in-law are also victims of this monster doctor. The major concern for all those who took the second jab is, how to ensure protection. The reduced second dosage may not provide the expected protection and on record they are now fully vaccinated. This act of the greedy doctor is unpardonable as she has knowingly deceived many unsuspecting people and put their lives at risk.
Another two doctors working at the Primary Health Center (PHC) in Chamrajpet, Bangalore were arrested for black marketing of the anti-viral drug Remdesivir and for issuing fake Covid-19 certificates.
There are several cases of doctors from various parts of India, buying unused Remdesivir injections from people who had bought the crucial drug for Covid-19 patients in their family or among the known ones from open market or hospitals at cheap rates and then selling it to the needy people at very exorbitant rates.
A noble profession is now infested with a dangerous virus called greed. Cases of impropriety may be a few, but these are early warning signals. In medicine, when a wound develops gangrene and threatens the very existence of life, it is necessary to amputate the wounded limb. The IMA which demands the Indian government to honour those doctors who succumbed to Covid-19 while serving the country, shall also demand for stringent punishment for those doctors who are a blot on the noble profession. Not only their licence to practice shall be revoked, but also shall be sentenced to life-time imprisonment
Horrendous doctor putting patient at huge risk again't such a dangerous virus. This doctor has done an unpardonable, unbelievable thing for sake of money and does not deserve to have medical license anymore and should get appropriate punishment as she destroyed the trust and health of the patients who got 1.5 vaccines only. Acute Respiratory Problems can potentially happen for such patients when there is shortage of oxygen cylinders and the patients will, never reach maximum antibodies possible against the alpha and delta variants of Coronavirus....such an act will lead to long imprisonment in most western countries.She has destroyed the reputation of thousands of Indian doctors who sacrificed their lives in the line of duty, making this act even more unpardonabLe and unthinkable. I am on tears just thinking about all those patients who got 1.5 vaccines only....it's mentally and physically devastating to think what those patients are going through, as they only know their true feelings of fear and anxiety. May God Bless them with safety.
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