[PS: - I am not
directly or indirectly associated with any news channel/print media/political
party/student union etc. There is no conflict of interest while framing this
article]
Some say doctors
are second only to god, some say doctors are the noblest professionals. For
some, the
above beliefs may not hold true all the time & the reason is
amalgamation of variety of factors like; quality of treatment, behavior of
doctors, work load etc. Because of the diversity in working atmosphere &
payment structure, we shouldn’t expect every doctor to be second only to god.
Frankly speaking, no doctor wants that tag too. It doesn’t matter whether you
are in cricket field or in Operation Theater; you would be either over-praised
or over-criticized. We, the Indians are emotionally extreme. We can worship
& kick the same person in different situations. You can well visualize the
situation in the scenes of old Hindi movies where the actors scold the God
while facing crisis but deep within they tend to carry limitless devotion. The
same thing happens in real life of doctors. People will praise you when you successfully
remove gall bladder in 99% of the occasions, but they will voluntarily &
seriously defame you if you injure the bile duct in 1% of the cholecystectomy
surgeries. One single mistake turns the God into a Dog!
Mistakes are unavoidable byproducts
available free of cost in all types of professions. But the
mistakes committed
by the health professionals get the unwanted limelight because they are in
direct contact with society. If a software engineer commits a mistake while
programming something, it never affects the general population directly. On the
other hand, doctors don’t get the privilege to rectify the mistakes they
commit. So these factors project a pseudo-magnification of a doctor’s
professional/personal mistakes. Now coming to the term ‘Cheap media’, I admit
that I have developed life threatening allergy to them. These are the ultra-low
profile TV news channels & news papers owned by some of the illiterate &
tadpole-brained politicians. Government hospitals are bread& butter for
some of these Medias. Their journalists are well aware of the fact that people
are highly sensitive towards news related to health professionals. Believe it
or not, in >90% of the educated Indian families you should find someone who
has prepared for medical entrance exam & >90% of them don’t get through.
So I don’t rule out the jealousy factor out of my equation. The cheap medias
always take this advantage by negatively exaggerating a news related to doctors.
When the relatives of a patient beat a doctor for a wrong reason, it is never
telecasted/ printed in these channels/news papers. But when the reverse happens
for self defense, the reporters run faster than Usain Bolt to publish the news.
There is nothing called ‘Self Defense’ in a doctors life! Nobody realizes the
amount of workload & stress a doctor has to handle in real life. Guess what
is the biggest joke by the judiciary system? It is the act that if someone
beats a doctor on duty, there will be non-billable arrest warrant against the
person. I have never seen/heard it being implemented anywhere in India.
I am not saying
that doctors are universally innocent. But the way these cheap medias are
projecting doctors makes me feel like being a criminal. Even the relatives
& friends of cameramen/drivers/sweepers/peons of the news agencies show
their red eyes to doctors while coming to hospitals. Unfortunately there is no
media coverage for the red eyes. It is hard for the doctors to remain
tight-lipped when these kind of people unnecessarily abuse in the stressful
working atmosphere. So it is time for the people associated to TV/print media
to have some introspection. They should recheck their credentials before
prematurely abusing doctors without any evidence. What our health system badly
requires now is a healthy relationship between the doctors & the patients;
it will be great if the media can act as a vital cog in the wheel of the relationship.
[If you are
related to TV/print media & you find this article offensive, then I am NOT
AT ALL SORRY. Because I am writing my heart out & it feels true]
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