Health care hue and cry – Unaware patients.

The average Indian patient is royally unaware of the shit when the boulder of disease hits him suddenly.

Its something like being slapped by a court case, the difference is that the terms are non-negotiable. If you have a certain disease it will follow its course of nature irrespective of your social, economic, emotional status at that time. There is no enemy you can point at and often it’s not your fault.

Unfortunately, inquiring about your health and learning about it, via the internet, books are still not a regular habit among most Indians. Here the west is a little ahead of us. Mainly because of easy access and lower language barrier. People, in general, know more about the lives of big boss contestants than their own self.

The west is at a different spectrum of the problem altogether. They believe anything that Google says. Free wrong advise is better than paid sound advise.

So how do we, as Indian patients turn the situation to our advantage?

• Stop believing Godmen and cheap quack solutions for your health ailments.

The typical chain of events after having a symptom is that – a. go to the chemist directly. b. go to the cheapest available doctor in vicinity c. go to some God-man who makes tall claims. d. then reach a qualified doctor as a last resort after being messed up by previous practitioners, only to blame that everything wrong is his fault.

• Don’t expect money back guarantee.

Because patients in India have to pay from their pocket. And when Indians shell out money, they think they are doing the biggest favor of their lives to the recipient of the money. And given an option, they would ask for the moon in return.

What as patients we forget is that medical science till date is not as perfect as say electronic or mechanical engineering. That’s because human beings aren’t manufactured in factories or designed in laboratories. Doctors are pretty much researching and reverse engineering a God made machine after millions of years of evolution. And no, new kids are not born with an instruction manual.

So, it is vital to accept the doctor’s limitation to fix a particular ailment and not fight tooth and nail against it.

• Trust your doctor

There are bad people in every profession. But we still grant them leniency. As Indians, we are far more unaware of our rights other countries citizens. We accept scams and corruption. Rapes and exploitation by looking the other way. Partly because we are helpless and partly because it’s too common a scenario in India.

But when it comes to being vigilant towards your medical care, the doctor is held at the highest possible stake, because people have been made to feel that doctors are the biggest crooks in the country. And we as innocent people buy everything that news channels sell us.

So my humble request to the people is that don’t reach your doctor with a sceptical mind waiting to make an allegation. Come with trust and belief. Just like most people, including you, the reader, is an honest guy, so are a majority of the doctors.

This was a series of posts. You can read the previous ones here :

Health care hue and cry – Prohibitive cost.

Health care hue and cry – Shortage of doctors.

Thanks for your time.