The Price of Your Life

One of the leading national news channels is doing a special report on medical negligence this week. I’m not surprised that there was the need.
Reservations and ‘payment seats’ rule medical education in the country. Probably reservations for the weaker sections of the society in undergraduation make sense. But what sense does it make to hold reservations at the post-graduation level? Don’t you think that at some level merit should be the sole basis for selection, especially in an essential service like healthcare?
Thousands of doctors write examinations held bi-annually by premier institutes like AIIMS, Delhi; PGIMER, Chandigarh; and JIPMER, Pondicherry. Thousands of them vie for a handful of seats: the leftovers after the reservation quota. Last year in JIPMER the doctor that secured the first rank was denied a berth; unbelievable but true. It will never happen in any other faculty, I am sure.
Imagine this, you or your loved one is rushed to a hospital for an emergency. Would you rather prefer a doctor who is doing what he is doing because he’s good enough to treat you? Or would you prefer some one not so deserving, someone who is there because of his birth, treat you? If nobody is bothered about the present day scenario in the selection process, nobody has the right to lament about medical negligence. While a negligent doctor should be hauled up for his crime, don’t you think we should haul the system up so that it filters sub-standard professionals?
You must have heard about it. Take a look around and see the status of higher medical education is. Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, All India PG Entrance, and more are in the grip of corruption and malpractice. The media makes so much noise about the fee hike in IIMs. But when it comes to the plight of doctors there is apathy, save for a few conscientious journalists that bother to give it the attention that it deserves. What we have here are seeds of a catastrophe. Quite a few good doctors want to fly away to foreign shores. The undeserving, corrupt ones are slipping in. At what price you wonder. The answer is pretty simple: your life. If we don’t arrest this corruption and archaic reservation policies, if we don’t make room for all the deserving doctors soon enough, this country will be all set to succumb to a healthcare disaster of biblical proportions. So, get out there and act now. Voice your opinion, for that is the only thing that will save our doctors. And of course you, your loved ones, and the future generations.