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Although it is unfortunate that Orissa Government had to invoke the Essential Service Maintenance Act (ESMA) against the agitating doctors in Orissa, the en masse resignation by our healers only to protest the firing of three of their professional colleagues underscores the modern day trade-union mentality and absolute lack of compassion on part of the members of the medical community.
The ideology of Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, that physicians must always apply knowledge to the best of their ability for the benefit of the sick without caring for money or other extraneous factors has become a fable in the eyes of most doctors these days.
In modern India, the art of medicine is viewed as nothing more than a business proposition with a great potential of making huge profit.
Mushrooming private nursing homes at every street corner bear indisputable evidence of the purely mercenary minds of the medicos today. The general decay of morality in the society is probably responsible for the steep decline in the outlook of many modern day doctors in India. But apart from this question of morality, a complete disruption of medical services through simultaneous agitation by a large group of doctors is also illegal in medical parlance.
It is frightening to observe large number of doctors adopting a trade-union politics and join together with a common goal in brazen defiance of the medical laws putting the lives of defenseless patients in serious jeopardy.
The chapter 2 of the “Code of Ethics Regulations” at the Medical Council of India (MCI), the central regulatory agency for practice of medicine in the country, has categorically stated that doctors cannot cause refusal of treatment for any patient.
Violation of any of the MCI rules may render the doctor guilty for “professional misconduct” which can make him/her liable for cancellation of medical license. Unfortunately for the ordinary people of India, the MCI rules and regulations have largely remained locked up in the drawers of the council office. Hardly any doctor has ever been punished by the medical council for violation of the medical rules.
The picture is quite different in the developed countries like UK and USA. Despite having a standard of healthcare which is far superior to that of India, doctors in the USA are routinely found guilty and penalized for transgression of medical or ethical rules through a transparent medical regulatory system which ordinary citizens can follow in the web.
The Federation of State Medical Boards (FSMB) routinely publishes on their website the names and numbers of the errant doctors found guilty for medical or ethical violation (WWW.FSMB.ORG).
Ironically, the Section 8.2 of the MCI “Code of Ethics Regulations” also stipulates that the name of any doctor found guilty by the medical council “shall be widely publicized in the local press”. Have you ever seen the medical council publicizing in the newspaper the name of a doctor found guilty for violation of medical rules?
Reports of doctors causing havoc in the hospital services by joining mass agitation or “doctors’ strike” appear not infrequently in the news these days.
While a peaceful strike by a group of workers is an important tool to fight injustice in a democratic society, workers involved with providing essential public services cannot have any right to go on a strike and endanger the society at large.
Doctors provide the most important public service in our society which literally deals with life and death. Article 21 of the Indian Constitution guarantees protection of rights to life and liberty to all citizens.
The Supreme Court of India has repeatedly affirmed that the right of a few people to go on a strike can never supersede the fundamental rights of thousands.
In a landmark judgment in 2003 involving striking government employees in Tamil Nadu (T.K. Rangaragan vs. State of Tamil Nadu), the Apex Court has ruled against the right to strike and categorically stated that government employees cannot take the society at ransom by joining a strike.
When doctors in government hospitals in Delhi started a strike to protest against reservations in 2006, several patients died without treatment. “People for Better Treatment”, an NGO dedicated to fight medical negligence, filed a public interest litigation (PIL) against the MCI and the striking Delhi doctors (SC Writ Petition Civil No. 316 of 2006).
The Supreme Court has already issued notices to the respondents in this case, which may have important implications on doctors’ agitations in India.
It is a shame that ESMA had to be invoked against the healers in Orissa for disruption of hospital services, but the government could hardly be blamed for such drastic action against the medicos that have been revered almost like Gods by the rest of the society until now.
It is ironic that while the government is trying to save thousands of ailing citizens by implementing ESMA, the pitiless doctors have joined hands to avenge the loss of employment of three of their colleagues without caring for the dying patient.
Hippocrates, the great Greek philosopher must be cringing in his coffin.
The author is a Medical professional and Professor at HIV/AIDS Center, Columbus, Ohio, USA.
