Not much time has passed when the doctors' fraternity was considered next to God in the Indian Society because they acted as the real saviours of people relying on this segment of society blindly as ‘deception' was not in the dictionary of these real life Messiahs.
With passing of time and materialism taking the toll, one can say that most of the doctors were among the first, who fall prey to this covetousness and partnered with each and every entity which can work hand in glove to deceive government, patients (elite, middle class or poor) and others coming in the way in the name of their so-called noble profession, with few exceptions, is no more noble at all. This lot can go to any extent of deception to mint money which in actual is not their due earnings or right.
One cannot deny that even today there are doctors which are in no way less than God although the number of such philanthropic medical professionals is so less that the same can be counted on fingers in any city or town of the country especially in J&K.
Taking particularly the case of J&K, on ground the ‘erring' or the ‘Private Practice Kings' are working on their sweet will at private clinics, hospitals, laboratories and any place of their choice with no fear of any authority or the government despite standing orders placed prohibiting the private practice of doctors. Cases had been come to light in the past when the government doctors were found serving in the private establishments during the duty hours throwing caution to the wind, proving beyond doubt that J&K is true haven for the delinquents.
The inception of Ayushman Jan Arogaya Yojana, which was originally envisaged by the Centre for providing succour to the people across the country, has been proving icing on the cake for the unprincipled medical fraternity as patients in thousands are being diverted from government health facilities to private counterparts under this scheme.
This is in vogue and needs to be rectified with iron hands but ‘nexus' and ‘connivance' are the simple words, when money comes in the way.
Contrary to earlier days, when the advice by doctors in government hospitals was considered as the part of dogma, the scenario today is totally changed especially in J&K as there are instances when these not so godly professionals somehow convince the patients visiting government health facility to see them in their private clinics making them believe that the same doctor in government hospital will become the ‘champion doctor' when he or she will practice profession at a private health facility.
It is high time that government should come out with a panacea for the poor lot of patients who are currently being exploited and sometimes ‘butchered' by the greedy lot of doctors and their cohorts just do grab last dime or penny from their pockets for leading a life of luxury as if they are the real Gods.
