India has got a lot of anger towards doctors. So much so, that you will find one getting beaten up every other day. Reports of residents and doctors getting brutally beaten up and small clinics, nursing homes and even hospitals vandalized have become an everyday story. But for a country that used to hero-worship it’s doctors, how is violence against doctors becoming so common?
“The Doctor has still remained the doctor, only the patient has become the customer now”
Starting with the late 90s, the media started reporting on a host of criminal negligence cases as the consumer forum starting accepting cases against doctors. But the reporting soon spiraled out of control as the media wanted juicier stories and attributed the “Negligence” to the greed of doctors. There couldn’t have been an easier target to find.
Pretty soon “the greed of doctors” became the talk of the town. Doctors were suddenly antagonized and portrayed as money crunching pigs who used their patients as experimental guinea pigs to prescribe costly medications, tests and procedure to fill their pockets and jump onto exotic locations. This lie has been propagated so many times that people have stopped understanding what the essence of medicine is and started believing the lie.
The blasphemy of Indian media
The prime reason that the media and journalists base their attacks on are the supposed perks that doctors receive. Their gullible audience, while reading their trusted sources of information lap it all up and the resentment grows. But let me tell you about how hungry for perks the Indian media actually is?
The media and journalists, many of whom I have met during my four years in travel, food and beverage blogging tend to be asking for handouts all the time. Be it a small time photographer haggling for an extra couple of tickets from the PR at an amusement park(he actually had gotten two and wanted four on account of his poor bacche being able to attend) to an editors of a prominent Business magazine self-inviting himself to a country in South America while talking to their Ambassador. Reporters in the Indian media love their share of freebies.
Not only do they love their freebies, they also believe in their exclusive rights to receive so. So the moment they felt that their exclusive right is being lost they attacked. They attacked with all the might of the pen corroding the Doctor-Patient relationship by creating a cloud of mistrust.
Why I said this?
This would have been true only if the media had kept their accusations to a single profession. There is another profession that they do not enjoy sharing their spoils with, Bloggers. Being a blogger for over three years now, I have met scores of journalists trying to undermine our work and saying that we are here for the freebies alone. Many of the times, the journalists covering events and even FAM trips are truly unprofessional and prone to throwing airs. They refuse to abide by the itinerary and their retort is “I won’t give you coverage.” The main reason that the Indian media hates doctors, bloggers and everyone else is that they want the freebies all for themselves.
How are they doing it?
In India, it is very easy to vilify a doctor without proving any facts. Multiple cases for medical negligence are reported without substantiated reports. One major newspaper reported in May 2014 how a wire had been left inside a person’s abdomen. On reading further, it was discovered that an Urologist had left a DJ Stent to save his patient’s kidneys. Whenever violence against journalists happes, as at the Patiala House Court the whole media goes on a strike. But whenever the same is done by doctors supporting their community, the media will talk about the irresponsibility of doctors instead of their plight. The projection of the Indian doctor in media is very simple: He is a greedy pig whose every action is geared towards earning a load of cash, whereas everyone else including the journos themselves are doing a service to the society by offering their services for free
How do we stop violence against doctors?
Stop believing and getting enraged against every news of “Medical Negligence”. Most of them haven’t been proved and are curated within the mind of the journalist who writes it. The journalist that you trust so much is actually very much corrupt and loves his share of sponsored stories, gourmet meals, curated cocktails and exotic locations themselves.
The Pen Might be Mightier than the Sword, but it pales in front of a Stethoscope.
Featured Image Credits: Meddybear
