Episode 2: Malpractices by Docs| Doctor's Day Special

            Malpractices by Docs

            Doctor's Day Special

Today we will be talking about malpractices by doctors in India. As said by Sherlock Holmes "It is a capital mistake to theorize before one has data". So I have made sure to collect enough data before defaming a profession.

Doctors are the white knights of our society. It's a pain to realize that each year about 7.4% of all physicians have malpractice claim over them. By percentage 19% in neurosurgery, 19% in thoracic-cardiovascular surgery, 15.3% in general surgery and 5.2% in family medicine. Nearly 25,000- 1,20,000 deaths are reported due to medical negligence which gives a ratio of 4:1 of the patients who die.

No doubt we do have exemplary doctors like Omkar Hota in tribal areas who carried a pregnant lady himself to the dispensary for treatment. But do you know that even he couldn't escape the medical malpractice as he himself recounts. When he was a teenager he took his mother to a government hospital where he was charged ₹200 leaving them penniless. That motivated him to be a doctor.


Coming to other examples of popular malpractice cases we have Dr. Surendra Senapati, HOD at Acharya Harihar Cancer Research Centre and his wife who got jailed. Then we have the popular case of Dr. Rabindra Kumar Jena, Professor and HOD of Clinical Haematology in SCB Medical College.

If you still do not reconcile the plight of this situation let me inform you that by the age of 65 years, 75% of physicians in low-risk specialities had faced malpractice claim, as compared with 99% of physicians in high-risk specialities.

Please note that here I am not implying that doctors are some kind of monstrous parasites who suck the patients dry for money. But we must also consider these facts and brainstorm solutions for it. Doctors are second to God only when the patient genuinely feels so. They cannot claim themselves to be demigods because they have a few degrees and do whatever they wish. Their status in the society is decided by the people not themselves. Rest is on you to decide.

Mera Bharat Mahan