Not Just Meds – Let’s talk beyond Medicine

When I started writing my health blog last year, I made a promise to myself that I would contribute at least one story every day but things did not turn up that way.

Of course, some promises are meant to be broken and there were several reasons for my failure in keeping the promise I made to myself.

One reason that I could single out was that there were not many medical events happening in the city that excited me enough to mark my presence that I could easily manage, thanks to my old medical network & acquaintances in the medical profession.

Not Just Meds – Let’s talk beyond Medicine

The desire to contribute something for my health blog rekindled on Saturday when I noticed an invite from Apollo Hospitals about ‘Not Just Meds – Let’s talk beyond Medicine’, touted as a one of its kind conference to address issues doctors confront every day.

Though I was skeptical at first, there was an element of excitement and curiosity for me as such a medical event that brought together top honchos from city’s rival corporate hospitals on to a common platform had never happened before.

There was a galaxy of them including Dr Somaraju B, chairman, CARE Hospitals, Dr Gopichand M, Chairman, Star Hospitals, Dr Guruva Reddy, Chairman, Sunshine Hospital, Dr K Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Hospital.

The man missing from the gallery was Dr Bhaskar Rao, MD & CEO, KIMS Hospital though his hospital logo was all over the place.

Will there be something fresh, unique and interesting outcome from the conference? This was running foremost in my mind even as I parked my two-wheeler in the cellar of Park Hyatt hotel, Banjara Hills and managed by way in.

Shobana Kamineni’s Keynote address

There was the Executive Vice-Chairperson, Apollo Hospitals & President, Confederation of Indian Industry throwing the ball in the court of the audience, throwing an open-ended question seeking to know the preparedness of the health industry if there ever emerged a‘Pandemic from the East’ in the future.

Of course, mass outbreaks of Ebola and MERS have the potential to devastate third world countries but another big worry for countries to tackle was the adverse consequences of global warming, she pointed out to the engrossed audience.

“We know how to control the after-effects of tsunami, but how prepared are we to tackle the burden of NCDs like diabetes, heart disease and cancer,” she asked.

Withering Patient-Doctor Trust

There were four sessions planned around the theme of ‘meet your mentors’ by doctor-entrepreneurs with ‘X’ factor, law and ethics, financial wellness and personal wellness at the conference.

However, what took away the cake was the topic surrounding doctor-patient trust.

Without an exception, all the speakers seem to have made up their mind to focus on the deteriorating trust between doctors and patients, with media supposedly aggravating the relationship by playing spoilsport between the two.

There were important takeaways from experts at the conference with Shobana Kamineni highlighting the changing attitude of the smart generation of patients of today.

“In ancient days, the patient could not question anything about the treatment but his thinking has now evolved. He wants to live longer and is worried about the outcome,” she said, while seeking to find a connection with the culture of questioning doctors too much.

So, how does a doctor react to such evolved patients and go on to build trust?

Shobana Kamineni had a simple formula: If somebody asks a question, answer that.

Not to miss the point,  Dr Somaraju B, chairman, CARE Hospitals,  clearly underscored the importance of doctor-patient relationship and said that healing process begins only after a doctor establishes trust with his patient.

While recalling an instance of how mistrust between doctor-patient claimed a life,  he said he was eye-witness to one such case where a patient  just walked in to his hospital while having a heart-attack.

 “Instead of admitting himself, the 39-year-old patient called up his lawyer friend, who had the usual things to say about corporate hospitals and advised him to go home. The patient passed away in the middle of the night,” he recalled.

The discussion on patient-doctor mistrust was also sought to be blamed on political factors with the result that there are increasing instances of hospitals refusing to take up life-threatening cases.

“Political reasons are also to be blamed for patients losing trust in doctors,” remarked the widely-travelled Dr K Hari Prasad, President, Apollo Hospital.

Ways to regain trust

So, how does one regain trust? Hopefully, there are solutions. For Dr Hari Prasad, one of the solutions he suggested was to display the rate card for different procedures so as to minimise the friction between the hospital and patients.

“There is already a law that calls for hospitals to display medical rates,” he pointed out.

For Dr Guruva Reddy, Chairman, Sunshine Hospital, one way of regaining trust was to let them know alternative treatments while for Dr Gopichand M, Chairman, Star Hospitals, it was necessary to understand the emotional point of view of the patients.

“Once you raise your voice, it becomes difficult to reason but it works if you manage to  bring down the emotion,” he said.

Worldly Wise: Dr Somaraju

Of the rest, Dr Somaraju B, chairman, he had been most candid speaker to admit about things ailing the medical profession.

Without batting an eyelid, he admitted that there were inadequacies plaguing the medical profession. However, his advice was too profound for doctors to miss.

 “There are issues with the medical profession. There are issues with us doctors and then there are issues with the public,” he said, while appealing people not to mistake with the medical practitioner for the inadequacies facing the medical profession.

Sometimes, the entire profession gets coloured with the same brush for one individual’s ‘inadequacies’, thanks to more than eager media to cook up a storm.

“If I commit a mistake, media plays it up so much,” he said, while stressing how such reports can leave a negative impression about doctors in general.

Not surprisingly, middlemen take advantage of this communication gap and aggravate the situation further.

His self-deprecating admission about doctors having ‘created disease that did not exist’ and allowing ‘middlemen to enter the profession’ had left the audience in giggles.

Personally, I would have loved to interview Dr Somaraju to delve deeper into his thoughts on several issues concerning the medical profession and what he thought to be ideal solutions.

 

About Me

Prabeer Kumar Sikdar is an independent digital marketing & Search Engine Optimization (SEO) friendly medical content specialist (both video & text formats) for doctors, catering to their diverse social media needs on platforms including Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Instagram  & Websites. 

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