OrthoDoc

It seems to me that doctors in India are no longer revered the way they were once upon a time. All along our student life it was drilled into our life that this profession is a noble profession. And this is not a joke! I remember during our internship, how patients often form the rural side would fall onto our feet and equate us with God. Mostly I would be embarassed, but I couldn’t help the feeling - have done something good!

Times have changed. There was talk this time in the men’s room about how a recent Tamil movie potrayed Indian docs. Thriupathi starring Ajith is currently running in the theatres in Chennai. Most of our friends felt like walking away halfway through the movie. So disgusting was the potrayal of doctors. The anger was largely directed against the Director. How could be so unfair and unjust!?

Being a citizen of a democratic country, the director had all the rights to express his opinion about a section of the society. He may have made errors in his potrayal. Democracy gives equal rights to the opposing party to express his or her opinion about the movie. Everyone was surprised how the medical council or the Indian Medical Associtation (IMA) had not protested about it.

There could be several reasons:

1. Doctors are busy making money. They do not have time to watch movies or register protests against them.
2. The several medical bodies, that exist, do not realise the importance of registering protests against the biased representation of the medical fraternity in popular media like movies. Numerous movies depict erroneous basic procedures in hospital or clinical setting. They are let to pass by and reach the public. Popular media is a powerful medium of communication and can be exploited to educate or inform the public.
3. There cannot be smoke without fire. The Indian medical system does not support or encourage self-criticism. There are rotten apples in the basket, so to speak, and if we do not make efforts to identify them, and either rusticate their licences or improve them through further training, the risk of the medical community’s image being tarnished is very high. It is natural to have poor performers. It happens in all other professions and medicine is no exception.
4. Profit is the driving force for many or almost all private hospitals. Morality and ethics have gone for a toss and discussions, if any, are limited to the few classses of Forensic Medicine in medical school. Public or charitable hospitals are on the verge of ruin. This is becoming more and more apparent to the public in general. They are forming a poor impression of doctors. If this is not countered at an early stage, it may become difficult to reverse the whole process.

Not long ago we used to laugh at how poorly lawyers or the police were potrayed in the films. Now it is our turn to be laughed and scorned at! In the end maybe it will jolt the fraternity and help wake up the slumbering associations.

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