The Second Oldest Profession in the World?
Sourav Mitra -
Saturday, January 26, 2008 5:01 PM
The Medicine Man has come a long way.
If not for him many of us would not have been alive today.
But, if not for him some of the dead would have been alive today.
It is hard to prevent criminals trafficking in kidneys by force. And it is harder still to prevent whiter collar criminals interpreting lacunar infarcts in the brain as 'galloping' lymphoma and proceeding with a fatal biopsy of the brain on an aged patient, and then damaging the biopsy samples far beyond the possibility of corroborative investigation elsewhere.
What may be preventable is the alleged 'salesmanising' of doctors by paying them a commission on the bills their patients run up at hospitals. This leads to unnecessary procedures that insult the sensibilities of patients and unnecessarily injure their bodies, sometimes fatally, always harmfully.
Can these negative market forces be turned positive in any way? Is medical insurance soothing half the guilt of commercial doctors and hospitals and perpetrating this 'malady'? Can medical insurers be forced to pre-empt unnecessary healthcare for their own benefit? Can business houses fund bonus pools to share between doctors who send away patients happy without any unnecessary invasions on their bodies at all? Or can advertisers' money keep the doctor happy in any way and save us from unnecessary physical and financial pain?
I wish we all knew when to say "NO!" to "...just another pin-***..." in the name of economic growth by way of the healthcare industry.