Tuesday, August 30, 2011

General practitioner....The vanishing Breed

Heart Specialist...E.N.T.Specialist...Ortho Specialist...Skin Specialist.....you name any organ or part of your anatomy and you have a specialist for it.They are the super doctors,very difficult to access for their appointment schedules are always overflowing. They charge a bomb as their fees and mostly patients return zapped with out completely understanding what has happened to them and not having the courage to question the Specialist...how dare they ask a specialist?

In turn the Specialists will see all your examination reports and prescribe accordingly. Many medicines will have some sort of side effects ,which would not be talked of by the Dr. before,things that can be easily managed. For instance having loose motions or nausea etc that can be taken care by simple medicines preventing the extra discomfort to the patient. But the specialist will not suggest them for he is the master of only one organ in the body...the rest do not fall under his purview.How sadly ridiculous.

Till some time back we had General practitioners who would be there to treat all possible ailments of our body. He would examine you totally , ask all related questions and then prescribe for a comprehensive solution ,taking care about all the possible side effects.You could talk about a small boil on your back even though you have gone to him for fever. He would deal with both. You ask a specialist the same, he would instruct you to go to a skin specialist. Then you are running around with 2-3 small problems to 2-3 specialists ,none of whom is interested beyond his area of specialisation.Sad Sad Sad.

Yesterday I was shocked again by the callousness of these medical specialists. No where else but in our capital Delhi, a maid working for a dear friend of mine ,was taken ill.She had some swelling below her eye and she was taken to a Dr. who gave her antibiotics. The medicines showed no results...the problem continued , in fact the swelling increased...she started having fever ...the Dr. kept on increasing the doses and for almost 3 weeks ,inspite of taking medicines the poor girl was in a bad shape. Meanwhile she was taken to an Eye specialist , E.N.T. specialist ...they said nothing was wrong in their specified areas. So the girl came back under the purview of another surgeon. Suddenly while talking to my father , who is a general practitioner in Kanpur,over the phone I told him the plight of this poor girl and my helpless friend. As soon as I told him the beginning of the problem and antibiotics not working for the first few days ..he asked me if all blood tests were done. He said she seems to have some kidney problem so she must have a kidney function test done .

I conveyed the same to my friend and when she took the girl to the Dr. requesting for the kidney test he said that yes the girl could have something to do with the kidney and she should be hospitalised in AIIMS or Safdarjung hospital for the treatment would be a long drawn process. He then suggested that she should be sent back to her village for who would be ready to shoulder this grave a responsibility?

So many specialists could neither suggest nor diagnose something so grave in a girl who was in front of them and a general practitioner over the phone ,without seeing the girl makes the diagnosis.

What do we say? The specialists are not M.B.B.S.? Of course they are ,only after that they specialise. So have they forgotten their basics in medicine? Or is it they are interested only in one part of the body..they refuse to see the patient as a whole ? Or are there no ethics what so ever left in the so called torch bearers of a noble profession?Or is it that a poor girl did not require the best out of them?

I am clue less...will anyone provide me with some answers please?

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