I do have a few things to say about “the big game in hospitals”. Many corporate hospitals, the “FIVE STAR” ones as they call it, have huge expenditure and to cope up with it..
I do have a few things to say about “the big game in hospitals”. Many corporate hospitals, the “FIVE STAR” ones as they call it, have huge expenditure and to cope up with it, gives a target to the doctors every month to complete. They also get paid on the number of surgeries they perform. It starts with recognizing prospective patients and convincing them. Some patients agree and some go for a second opinion, which I think is a better option.
This rising practice amongst surgeons of performing surgeries even without the strongest surgical indications to make the patient go through such a painful and expensive process.
It is a well known fact or as you would say an “open secret” that doctors working in corporate, high end hospitals are being pressurized by the management to complete their monthly or annual targets of number of surgeries, or consume a certain number of implants or stents.
Common Surgeries That Are Often Unnecessary
Stents – It increases the blood supply to your heart muscle by widening narrowed coronary arteries. 8 out of 10 patients who undergo this procedure are unsuitable patients who would be better served by more conservative therapy.
Cardiac Pacemakers - This device uses low-energy electrical pulses to prompt the heart to beat at a normal rate. Research shows that more than 22 percent of these implants may be unnecessary.
Back Surgery – A process called lumbar discectomy which is often done on patients with sciatica is no more effective in relieving pain than the non-invasive treatment. The best success rate for spinal fusions is only 25 percent. The complex spinal fusions gives slight benefit when compared to the simple decompression, but the cost is more than three times as much and have increased fifteen fold over five years.
Hysterectomy - The process in which the uterus is removed which is often because of lack of sufficient diagnosis and also because of failure to try alternate treatment before the surgery. Sometimes the ovaries are also removed during this procedure as a precaution and is done without the consent.
Knee Replacement –?A procedure to replace the weight-bearing surfaces of the knee joint. A study shows 48% who were asked to undergo total knee replacement did not need to undergo the surgery.
Cesarean Section – Cesarean delivery is the most commonly performed surgical procedure. But research shows that there is a rapid growth of Cesarean delivery even among low-risk pregnancies. According to WHO, no country is justified in having a cesarean rate greater than 10 percent to 15 percent.
Personal experience:
I have personally also had to endure this atrocious practice not too long ago. A close friend of mine who lives abroad developed a perianal abscess. The surgery was done at the government hospital and the surgeon post surgery?did not even bother to visit and completely forgot to do the normal follow up management. In this case that is to take pus culture and prescribe antibiotics.
After a couple of days he developed pus discharge from his wound. His family had enough of the second hand treatment there, so they flew to India. They then consulted a surgeon from a reputed hospital. Now this doctor without a second thought confirmed that my friend needed another surgery to drain the pus. My friend did not want to go through the whole painful process again, so decided to take a second and a third opinion. Now both of the other surgeons strongly disagreed on performing a surgery so soon after the first, they said that my friend was already developing a complication of the abscess, a fistula. In case of a fistula the best approach is to wait for it to epithelise and then do a fistulectomy, which again depends on multiple factors.
It’s Your Body: Take Control of Your Health
I dread to think what my friend would have to undergo if he would have listened to the first surgeon! This is the state of doctors today!! Where is the sincerity in their evaluation of the patient? Do they even for a minute think of the unnecessary pain and mental stress a person undergoes by these unwanted surgeries? As an individual, if I am so skeptical, I can’t help but feel worried for the rest of them who so completely trust these “guardians of health and wellness”.
There should be a stringent policy to keep a check on this. There is a need for introducing transparency and accountability in medical practices, policy for hospitals to declare the maximum retail price on each device. Regardless of what percentage of doctors involve in unethical practice, an impartial monitoring system is needed.
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06.09.2019 09:07
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