Medicine: Roadmap needed

The Supreme Court’s concern for the well-being of all patients and its notice to the Medical Council of India for the drafting of guidelines to prevent medical negligence is well founded. Such a call for a critical analysis of the treatment meted out to the critically ill in the ICUs and CCUs of all hospitals and nursing homes does not come a moment too soon in a country that fares so poorly in the doctor to patients ratio (every allopathic doctor serves a population of around 11,000 people according to the National Health Profile of 2015) that normal care of marginally sick people itself is a huge challenge.

Most suffering caused is in the lack of proper communication with the relatives of patients who need critical care in all but the best hospitals, which are anyway beyond the reach of most Indians. The ground realities of patient care are far from the ideal in most cases and yet, the thrust is towards more privatisation of healthcare even as funds are being cut. Communication regarding the procedures and the need for them is scant provided by reluctant doctors who generally profess to be too busy to attend to the essential empathetic functions in any doctor-patient relationship.

A system of exploitative diagnostic and healthcare is prevalent in most private medical care, but it is a subject that hardly gets attention in a our society. Most healthcare is driven by the profit motive instead of the compassionate view that the Supreme Court has taken in one issue that could become a cause celebre. If it elicits a proper response from MCI, the Centre and the states on guidelines to prevent medical negligence, the court would have rendered signal service in a crucial aspect of life.