Notes on three scandals
BMJ 2016; 352 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.i674 (Published 04 February 2016) Cite this as: BMJ 2016;352:i674
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PROFESSIONALS, PARA-PROFESSIONALS & PARIAH-PROFESSIONALS
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All living beings are subject to death and disease. Only human beings are capable of influencing or modifying this natural phenomenon. Here comes the " professional ", at a distance followed by " the para-professional ". Among them is the " pariah-professional".
Death and disease continue!!
Competing interests: No competing interests
The history of Prof. B.M. Hegde's battle against unethical medical practice is a long one. I'm happy his efforts in enlightening the unwary common man of these evils are bearing fruit.
I have personally been witness to ICU malpractice. ICU stay is indeed a launchpad for many a healthy man to reach heaven quickly. About the spent pacemaker batteries, how many innocent and ignorant people have been fooled!
The statin drugs are creating havoc slowly and silently, threatening young and old alike with the cholesterol bogey. It's very sad that these drugs are prescribed to very young people preparing them for more dreadful diseases such as diabetes.
The medical field should wake up to the truth that their responsibility is a greater and nobler one than what they think.
It is true like in the field of Nobel awards, corruption has crept into medical awards also.
I thank the BMJ for publishing Prof. Hegde's article which should be an informative experience to the gullible common man.
Competing interests: No competing interests
When I read commentaries like this, I whisper to myself "there is a god".
As a long-time, reasonably well-informed and increasingly unrepentant questioner of the status quo ante, observations like these warm my heart and make me -- and undoubtedly tens of thousands of others who share this perspective -- feel a little more assured that change is possible, in large measure because the misdemeanours and mistakes we make -- including morally and ethically iniquitous and even criminal acts -- are becoming more visible, especially to the general public.
Our humanity, as physicians, means that obviously we must expect to make mistakes, even egregious ones. That same humanity, and our inherent aspiration to be good people, compels us to deal with them deliberately and constructively, not hew to the fantastical line that we are above making them in the first place.
I am grateful that this piece has made these points explicit. Doing so from the desk of the BMJ editor-in-chief makes them decidedly more meaningful and potent.
Competing interests: No competing interests
We enjoy reading texts writing by Dr. Fiona Godlee - Bmj’s editor in chief. We are perplexed and pale after reading his article, published in BMJ 2016; 352: 1674, on the Editor's choice section. Again corruption cases are presented in institutions responsible for the education and training of professionals for the health sector, and on issues related to the use of technological methods for diseases’ treatment. Those three well briefly described cases, clearly show us that in different world countries, several people continue violating the guidelines and the internationally established protocols to control the practical use of treatments, which by their nature at long term can cause severe damage in patients.
Every day there are scandals in the health sector, of all colors and all styles, individual or collective. Many are so incredible that it costs us a lot of work to understand them, because they are generated in a very productive sector, conformed by professionals and technicians of the highest quality. Some bad examples are: conspiracy, illicit enrichment, narcotrafficking, fraud, documents falsification, physical assaults, insults, problems with patients, alcohol and psychoactive substances use, tax evasion, problems related to responsible parenthood … etc.
In the health sector, cases like those published, make on good people’s spirits sprout the bitter feeling of shame. It is very sad and painful to observe the climate of agitation and despair that is generated when such things happen, and especially when their main protagonists are mentioned, whose actions bring suffering, pain and tragedy to people living in many corners of the world. Even apologizing with the corresponding excuses may calm the affected people tempers. Perplexity is confusion. Every day is more complex to understand why these things happen in a sector that must be the model of honesty, and transparency. It's a shame that the everyday behavior of those people doesn’t recognize the ethical fundamental duty of the health sector: to prevent, to promote and to cure disease.
As great contemporary time protagonists we are always exposed to daily social controversy. The developed world look at us as a unique set, and precisely, in that complex set, is where people can see the huge hole that produces the negative impact shown by corrupt leaders, bad health professionals and the nowadays increase of incidence and prevalence of catastrophic diseases.
Societies never forget the great atrocities and abuses committed by members and representatives of health services, through the history, worldwide. Even those examples are not seen for new generations and health companies to commit them again. The same past ugly behaviors, the same caused ravages, present in the collective memory of the suffered countries are continued in the contemporary world. All the time follows the storm and people are still waiting for calm, without forgetting what happened on the past.
But it’s time to stop. We need to make a stop along the way; things should not continue as always. We have no doubt that many people in health sector have always been at the wrong place.
Among the main characteristic evils that still perpetuate in health sector are the annual increase of professionals without the necessary skills and competences for honest working in health sector; money laundering, and corruption.
We should think from now a thoughtful, weighted, and careful overall response to tackle those mentioned above problems. At first, we should form people blocks to officially denounce to those who commit those atrocious crimes against humanity. The world people cannot be quiet if a corrupt and misleading conduct is maintained in the health sector.
It is impossible to continue hiding the very low professional quality of many graduates of prestigious national and international universities; their low blows to the community, to the patients; their tsarist desire to remain forever in the power; and even their media manipulation for promoting therapeutical procedures not officially approved. They do not feel own shame, and cause it to others. Their personal purposes are used to away the health sector from community, the sensible world, rather than closer to them. So, why to silent steadily, against the unethical abuses of those dangerous, whole reprobated professionals, and their minions? Of course it is not easy to remove the abnormal states of affairs in the health sector, which has grown over 40 years; but either way, we must begin the very hard battle against corruption in our health sector.
It’s urgent and indispensible to preserve and defend the profession’s dignity and decorum. In matters of decorum and dignity there is not jurisdiction. It is the public opinion which dictates and in those ugly cases the failure is overwhelming. Culprits must go out forever from the health sector. To allow the presence of those people, after the scandals produced by them, only get common people to do fully unfair generalizations. The remedies should be proposed quickly to prevent a great shame reproduction.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Up until now I have been fighting a lone battle against all the ills plaguing the medical establishment starting from the wrong science base of linearity and reductionism to the greed of making money in the sick room aided and abetted by the large pharma company sharks laughing their way to their banks. To cap it we have the corporate hospital monstrosities to add to patient woes. Just like the hospitalism of the 18th Century Britain where patients went to hospitals en route to heaven, we have the ICU ism of the 21st century sending terminal illness patients to heaven through their ICUs thereby making the family poor at the end of the day, some of them with heavy debts. NHS patients do not realise this but private patients’ relatives have this experience every day!
I am happy that one of the top medical journals has joined the fight against medical wrong doings. Pace maker batteries’ life is a minor matter (of course of great importance) but the scam of stenting almost every asymptomatic person who goes for a routine check-up is the largest scam of the century. Even young children have these innocuous coronary blocks. So naturally anyone who goes to the doctor becomes a patient and if the doctor happens to be a cardiologist in private set ups the normal man who became a patient gets stented and permanently stunted in health thanks to the blood thinners that go with stents. The story of the success of cholesterol lowering efforts with poisonous drugs can only be laughed at when the establishment on the other side of the Atlantic now declaring cholesterol a friend! What about the millions who suffered the statin onslaught?
Cancer is another area, as rightly pointed out by Nobel Laureate Linus Pauling as the biggest fraud. Then we have the epidemics produced by epidemiologists like swine ‘flu and now Zika virus scare. We benefit by scaring the public and predicting the unpredictable future of our patients. I call our system as Health Scare System for disease mongering. For any new disease we invoke a virus. The scam of SMON (sub-acute myelo-optico-neuropathy) which killed lots in Japan just months before their Olympic Games comes to mind. The poor slow virus like Kuru was blamed and drugs given while the real culprit was an anti-diarrhoeal drug quinolone. The latter was the observational research of a family doctor Kano in Tokyo!
Coming to awards, even the BMJ has started one in India; less said about them the better. I have been the International advisor for the Royal Colleges for a long time. I used to get the bio-data of Indian doctors for honorary Fellowships; if they are genuinely good I used to do it happily until there came a time when there was a sudden spurt in Fellowships aided by drug company conduits to all and sundry. When we were young Hon. FRCP was such a rare honour given to the best in the field. Honours also now come under the scam category.
Competing interests: No competing interests
Re: Notes on three scandals- View from India
Thank for the truth telling article. It appears that exploitation of our own species is another evolutionary hallmark of Homo Sapiens. This also reminds me of some ancient Sanskrit language verses known in India:
Vaidyaraaj namastubhyam Yamaraaj sahodaram: Yamastu harati praanan Vaidyah praan dhanaani cha.
Translation from Sanskrit reads: Salutations to Vaidyaraaj (Doctor king) the brother of Yamaraaj (Hindu god of death). Yamaraaj robs a person of his life, and the Vaidyaraaj robs him of both his life and his wealth.
Competing interests: No competing interests