One of the dailies that we subscribe to carried a news item. It was about an open forum type meeting planned by an NGO to discuss removing all evil from medical practice. It said the medical practice today involved doctors (check), patients (check), laboratories (check), pharmaceuticals (check) and pharmacies (check). Then there was a list of the speakers, which included a dean with national honors, an ex-VC and ex-ex dean, a current VC of a deemed university, a preventive and social medicine specialist, and someone else I cannot recall. There would be interaction with the audience.
When I mentioned this to a colleague, he/she said "great speakers. But does talk improve anything? If these stalwarts had solutions to these problems, why have they not applied them and got rid of the evil?"
That sounded true. So I said "hmm..."
"Everything that happens out there these days is just business. You want something, you pay. Nobility of the medical profession is a myth."
That sounded more or less true. It was different for some of us working in medical college hospitals for salary, but the statement was a broad statement, not one for the minority.
"What do you think will happen after all that talk?" I asked.
"People will feel good that someone cares" he said. "Perhaps the sale of the said newspaper will increase."
"What else?"
"The speakers will feel good. They will feel they have done something noble. They will get more invitations for such speeches too."
"The evil will not go away from current medical practice?" I asked.
"Oh, that!" he said. "That will not go away with anything less than an apocalypse."
That was true for all evil, not just evil in medical practice. So I said "hmm..."
When I mentioned this to a colleague, he/she said "great speakers. But does talk improve anything? If these stalwarts had solutions to these problems, why have they not applied them and got rid of the evil?"
That sounded true. So I said "hmm..."
"Everything that happens out there these days is just business. You want something, you pay. Nobility of the medical profession is a myth."
That sounded more or less true. It was different for some of us working in medical college hospitals for salary, but the statement was a broad statement, not one for the minority.
"What do you think will happen after all that talk?" I asked.
"People will feel good that someone cares" he said. "Perhaps the sale of the said newspaper will increase."
"What else?"
"The speakers will feel good. They will feel they have done something noble. They will get more invitations for such speeches too."
"The evil will not go away from current medical practice?" I asked.
"Oh, that!" he said. "That will not go away with anything less than an apocalypse."
That was true for all evil, not just evil in medical practice. So I said "hmm..."
