In this article, I’m not going to write about what Doctors go through during the days before med school then all the way through Post-Graduate training, etc. That has been said a 1000 times in 1000 different ways.
Those of you who can understand needs not to read or hear that again. I rather decided to write this article after watching and listening so much on news about Doctors in Pakistan.
Doctors are portrayed by the media as demons!
Regrettably, most of it is not right and it’s misleading. Media is good and a bad thing at the same time. I completely believe in the liberty of social media.
But it’s unfortunate how Doctors are being targeted and are portrayed as demons in front of the people. The reason I am writing this article is that I m a trainee Doctor in a tertiary care hospital. And I would know better than anyone else about the health system of this country.
Doctors cannot guarantee you a life!
Being a Doctor in a third-world country like Pakistan is a curse sometimes. We are human just like anybody else with emotions and feelings. Our main objective is always helping and treating the patient just like any other Doctor in the world.
One thing, no Doctor, and when I say Doctor I mean the best Doctors in the world, can guarantee you a life. But we promise to try our best and provide the best treatment plan available.
Sadly, people expect us to guarantee a life when they bring a patient to the hospital at the last moment. I wish we could but no we cannot.
We don’t have magical powers to give a life to a patient. And let me tell you, a Doctor at Harvard with the best setup and all the resources will not be able to give u life and you here, living in a third world country with limited resources, blame a Doctor for not saving a patient with an advanced carcinoma or any other serious health illness.
If it was in our power no patient would have ever died.
The media loves the negative spin
So let’s come to the main point. Our media is crying over patient dying in basic health unit where they don’t even have ECG machine or defibrillator.
I understand a common person has no idea how a medical setup works. But I blame the media for being so irresponsible who are cashing out their news and defaming Doctors.
Have you given the patient Snake Venom, Doctor?
For example, let’s talk about the recent incident of a patient dying from a snake bite. The illiterate media person came to the emergency and asked the treating doctor about the cause of death.
He then started questioning repeatedly that have you given him “VENOM”. Have you given the patient “VENOM”? later on, when he didn’t find anything, he just stated that a young patient has died of doctors negligence.
Now, without investigation, to break the news he blamed the doctors. Although the case was later on investigated and during his two hours stay, the patient had all the labs done and he was given anti-snake venom as well.
He developed severe anaphylactic reaction and laryngeal edema. He was resuscitated with full protocol but couldn’t be revived.
Breaking News – “Doctors of PIMS had a clash”!!
Similarly a few years back, a female doctor in the nephrology department was strangulated by the patients attendant. The patient was brought from a private facility in a dying state (gasping state).
The next day, when the doctors gathered to devise a strategy to minimize such incidents, few doctors have some arguments over previous such incidents. Now the media modified the whole scenario.
Instead of communicating a positive message and educating the masses that this was wrong, the breaking news was “doctors of PIMS had a clash”. There was no mention of why the doctors gathered and why they had a clash. And what about the incident that happened.
The doctor is making money out of it!!
I am not saying all Doctors are saints but again few black sheep don’t represent us all. Just like in any other profession we have few bad practitioners. In our country, the patient-doctor relationship is very weak.
When we offer them the best treatment plan available, most of the time attendants refuse just because they think that rather we are making money out of it.
Death is unpredictable!!
If during a major surgery, a patient expires it’s a Doctors fault. It’s like we are paid to give life. There is a reason that consent is made and it’s a must, to take consent before doing any procedure on the patient.
Consent was made to secure Doctors all around the world. Even in the best hospitals with the best medical teams, consents are being taken. Why? Because we are not Gods, we are just Doctors we can only do our best but death is unpredictable.
So sadly in a country like Pakistan where resources are so limited when the patient expires, all of sudden on every news channel and in every newspaper you hear that the patient died because of Doctors negligence.
It’s HEARTBREAKING!!
I want to clear one thing to people it’s not easy to enter in this profession and we are not some money hungry creatures.
If you think every Doctors main purpose is to make money there are so many other professions where you can make many times more amount of money with less time and effort. Doctors work round the clock and don’t get any holidays.
People expect us to be on duties even on 24/7. It’s heartbreaking when we Doctors don’t get no appreciated for what we do.
What We did, and every doctor do for a poor patient!
I was working before in a Tehsil Headquarter Hospital, where all the staff from class 4 to grade 19 Doctors would collect money to arrange the basic things that a patient would need in the emergency department as the government would often fail to provide us with basic facilities.
As here in our unit, we have a fund in which every the doctor ( House Officer / Post-Graduate Trainee ) and even nurses pay a sum of 1000 – 2000 rupees on monthly basis. That money is used for poor and deserving patients when they are in need.
So how could a community with this kind of passion for the well-being of humanity mistreat a patient?
In memories of our colleague – WISH we could save her…
My fellow Doctor collapsed on a duty at PIMS hospital in ICU yesterday. While she was on her duty she was probably not feeling well for days as she had a history of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscles).
But she still managed to come to work because she was a Doctor right! Let me tell you, PIMS is one of the finest institutes in Pakistan, urgent care was given but we still couldn’t save her and we lost one of the finest Doctor.
But no news channel will ever show u that why? Because we Doctors are some magical creatures we are supposed to work like lifeless machines all day and night.
Most of our HOUSE OFFICERS are not paid a penny for the work they do
Media is talking about Doctors negligence and making a new story every now and then. I see Doctors being mistreated by the attendant’s every day, female Doctors being abused and tortured verbally and even physically.
We trainees/HOs are amongst the least paid professionals in the community but if we come out on strike for our rights, we are shown as savages to the public which when happens in any other profession is taken as righteous and deserving.
Most of the House Officers in my hospitals are not paid a penny for the work they do, and on top of that, they have to pay for their own accommodations outside the hospitals and daily expenses.
Doctors are being beaten by people, no security is provided to Doctors. No news channel will ever come and stand by Doctors or even raise a voice to provide Doctors basic security.
The Whole World Hates Us … for the poor system and setup.
We are just called “CREAM OF THE COMMUNITY”, no one actually consider us though. Believe me, Today when I talk about my life to my friends from other professions they think of it as a competition and they start comparing their 4-year degree with my studies and say that “NO”, theirs is the toughest.
Wherever there comes an opportunity to talk against Doctors, it feels like the whole world hates us. I know that almost every one of you has suffered due to the poor system here in govt. hospitals, but that is not a Doctor’s fault.
DON’T PIN IT ON ME EVERYTIME YOU ARE UPSET!!
Checking into 400-500 patients every morning in just 6 hours of OPD time with only 3 Doctors in one room is a mere miracle only encountered by Doctors. Where everyone is standing right up on top of your head and shouting.
That is to my mistake if someone does not get my full attention while they are telling me stories of their past. There are about 170,000 registered Doctors in Pakistan as of today and in my opinion, our country needs at least a million more to fulfill the need of our population. So don’t PIN it on me every time u are upset with something else.
To the news reporter – JUST COVER ONE WHOLE DAY OF A DOCTOR!
I challenge all those news reporters who publish garbage about Doctors to come and stay for 1 full day in the emergency department and judge the situation. It will give you a completely different picture of how it’s being told and how it’s actually done.
If they do, I bet a lot of people who are working towards becoming a Doctor will change their mind.