Interview: Dr Amitava Ray
Outside my medical acquaintance, the fresh face I encountered at ‘Not Just Meds – Let’s talk beyond Medicine’ conference on Sunday was Dr Amitava Ray, senior consultant Neurosurgeon and Clinical Lead, Neurosciences, Apollo Research and Innovations.
With a decade long association with Apollo Hospitals, Not Just Meds – Let’s talk beyond Medicine turned out to be Dr Amitava Ray’s brainchild, with whom I had an interesting tete-a-tete on a host of issues surrounding the lives of modern day medical practitioners.
Excerpts from our conversation:
On pressures
There is always enormous pressure on a doctor – right from competing with six lakh medicos for 2000 NEET PG seats to pressure on getting married. The struggle goes on as even after they successfully cross one stage, they find themselves at the bottom of the pile when they step in to another stage of their professional life.
On Suicides
Of the 2500 doctors supposedly committing suicide every year in the country, Dr Amitava Ray said that 90% of them are in the age group of 24-38 years. There is fair amount of hard work and long hours of duty, sometimes stretching average 16-hours a day that is required of doctors in the profession, making them sleep-deprived. He believes that without understanding the amount of hard work one is required to do, many join the profession. Furthermore, it is essential that youngsters should not be forced into the medical profession, he opined.
On too many diagnostic tests
This is a catch-22 situation for a doctor. If he advises too many tests or too little diagnostic tests, he will be in trouble either way and how. For instance, if one comes with complain about a pain in upper abdoben could possibly emanate from seven different organs of the body. If a doctor were to prescribe seven diagnostic tests, he would be in trouble for advising unnecessary tests.
On too little time for patients
The art of consultation needs good communication skills as doctors are sometimes required to give more time to some patients but it may antagonize other waiting patients if the issue is not handled properly. At least, doctors must spend 10-15 minutes on average with a patient, says Dr Ray.
On targets
It is not denying that doctors in some corporate hospitals come under pressure as a result of ‘target system’. However, I never had to face such a culture at Apollo Hospitals.
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