Dr. Paul Saldanha
In reply to Pascoal T Fernandes’ article ‘Hotel and Hospital are one and the same’ (Herald, 29 July), here is a clear example of hate against doctors and the medical profession as a whole.
To him and such misinformed people, I suggest you read an article printed on the very same page of the newspaper, titled ‘Stop Medical Terrorism’ by Dr. Gladstone D’Costa (Herald 29 July), wherein the writer has explained beautifully the way society perceives doctors and the medical profession.
Pascoal’s distaste is clearly evident, when he further terms General Doctors as private agents of hospitals. He fails to understand that private and so-called small clinics do not have the facilities to treat A to Z of medical problems. These setups form your primary stage of healthcare, wherein anything more serious and complicated requires further tests and referrals. Take a case in example of the numerous government primary health centre’s too.
Unfortunately like Pascoal, there are many out there, who believe in value for money aka paisa vasool in lay man terms. They expect the best treatment as well as highest quality of service, but when it comes to payments, purse strings get tight.
Yes by all means do use the services of the state, but complications happen everywhere. You cannot cheat death. And no, we do not dump you at the government hospital when a case has no hope. You may choose to believe otherwise, but every hospital has its protocol and chucking you out is definitely not in their lists.
I would like to put forth a scenario where my wife, who is a General Doctor, had a case wherein the patient required certain tests to be performed in order to rule out a particular medical condition. When the tests came back negative, as in the medical condition was not present, the general mentality is, oh my we spent so much just to find out we were okay.
Instead of a sense of relief on seeing such good results, they consider it a waste of time and money. And if the test was skipped by the doctor, probably the patient would have accused us of medical negligence.
Something to ponder over, don’t you think…
