People, doctors don't see eye to eye over health check-ups

Chennai: Always guided by the wrong notion ‘it will not happen to me’, a majority of the public does not invest in time or money on regular health check-ups. Despite the number of ailments increasing by the day, and the lack of awareness on the various symptoms of each disease, general public prefers sitting back and waiting until a problem hits them before making a visit to the doctor.

“Just because another individual develops a certain sickness, doesn’t mean I should. I take great care of my health maintaining a good diet and a good amount of exercise,” said Madhav R., a trainer. Despite there being government schemes in the country, the lack of a good system, with the dearth of commitment seen on the part of some doctors and the need to advertise themselves on the part of some others, it has been seen that the public is slowly losing faith in doctors. “Doctors these days are so busy starting their own clinics and in order to meet them at their clinic, your wallets must be full. The doctor’s fees alone amount to at least Rs 300-500,” said S. Palani, a retired school teacher. “How then am I to go for regular health checkups?” he asked.

While patients blame doctors for their exorbitant fees and for making them undergo numerous tests, which they feel are unnecessary, doctors blame patients for taking them for granted. “I had gone to the doctor with a headache, which I thought was recurring on account of sinusitis. The doctor sent me for a CT scan. What a way to rob me off my money,” said Amritha S. of Taramani. “To add to that, doctors, nowadays, are so busy advertising each and every surgery, as against their ethics,” she added.

Doctors, however, are of the opinion that there is a need for the public to be made aware of the possibility of rare problems being addressed with advancement in Science and Technology. “It is essential to create awareness on  rare problems. It is to let people know that our public health system is also sound enough to tackle such problems,” said Dr G.R. Ravindranath of Doctors’ Association for Social Equality. “There was an instance when a neurologist was found to be prescribing CT MRI scans for all his patients. When questioned, he said patients are coming in from different parts of the country to get a second opinion or treatment, and in case it is not prescribed on the first consultation, and if a problem arises, the doctor or hospital can be sued. That is the problem in the system as doctors are being forced to depend on defensive practices,” he said. “The government should have a national protocol based treatment policy for each and every disease, to ensure safety for doctors as well,” said Dr P. Mohan, a general physician.