Such Doctors, Hospitals Need to Be Punished

It was shocking to read that the Fortis Hospital in NOIDA refused to hand over the body of a dead patient because the family failed to pay the dues.

It was a simple leg fracture but the patient, Sukhbir Singh Chauhan, died mysteriously in the elite hospital. Not only that, the expense, that was to be Rs. 40,000, swelled up to Rs. 6,50,000. A reason was given neither for the death, nor for the fee.

This is purely criminal neglect and such doctors and hospitals need to be taught a severe lesson. The problem here in India is that doctors treat their patients quite condescendingly, and there is no reason for such a treatment, especially in the private hospitals where they charge exorbitant fee.

Now and again there rises a debate on whether there should be a client/consultant relationship between doctors and patients, or whether there is something extremely holistic about the relationship.

Holistic my foot. Just go to a private hospital and they won’t even see you without a payment slip, so what sort of holistic feeling they talk about? They are just a bunch of hypocrites who want the best of both the worlds. They charge like consultants but when they screw up they say they shouldn’t be treated like the normal service providers and hence shouldn’t be made to bear the responsibility if something unfortunate happens to the patient.

I’m not saying treating a person is same as filing a tax return for your client. Of course it is a matter of life and death when it comes to the service of doctors but this makes it more important to hold them responsible if they are mercenary, callous and careless, as it happened in the Fortis case. Something bad kept on happening to the patient and they didn’t find it necessary important to tell the family while having no qualms about asking for money repeatedly. This is highly moronic on their part.

It’s very scary that you can die of even a smaller injury just because you are unlucky to have bumped into lousy doctors.