By Dr. K. Javeed Nayeem, MD

Now, let me warn you at the very outset, that the title of this article qualifies eminently, to be labelled as an act of barefaced plagiarism. But I am using it here nevertheless, because plagiarism is today an act that is much committed and much condoned too.

And I say this because, in these days of easy internet surfing and much easier cutting and pasting of the content therein, it’s a very simple job for anyone to produce an admirable piece of writing, commonplace, analytical or mind you, even scientific.

When you also take into consideration the rapid forages AI is making into our daily lives these days, plagiarism has not only become much easier, more widespread but even dignified. Otherwise, what is the use of developing new technologies, if we do not put them to good use, even if it is only to show that we are keeping pace with progress?

‘Malice in Blunderland,’ a parody of the story ‘Alice in Wonderland,’ by Lewis Carroll, was the title of a very popular column by Russi Karanjia in the weekly tabloid Blitz which he started in the year 1941, at the peak of the II World War and ran it almost single-handedly, with astounding success, for more than fifty years.

While I used to enjoy reading it while I was in high school, it was in discussing it with my friends which I enjoyed more, even if only to show off the kind of stuff I was reading, at such an early age! Sadly, Russi and the once very popular paper he founded, are now both gone. But in their departing, they both left behind a void, that was felt for very long, by all their admirers.

Incidentally and interestingly, Russi too had plagiarised the title of his column by borrowing it from the title of an extinct and long forgotten book and in doing so he has inspired me to do likewise, secure in the knowledge that it is a pretty safe thing to do and it might also do fair justice to the topic I’m writing about today!

Over the past few days or even weeks, a very eccentric WhatsApp forward has been doing very brisk rounds across the length and breadth of our country, about the allegedly insane way in which doctors and hospitals in India are making big money these days.

Not being much of a WhatsApp driven man, I ignored the outlandish but very amusing content of these forwards that kept coming to my hospital number repeatedly, until a good many patients coming to me, started discussing the ethical questions it raised, instead of discussing their medical problems, which is what they were paying me for.

In my much-amused state, the realisation suddenly dawned on me that it would make an interesting and illuminating subject to write upon, which I’m now doing.

The WhatsApp message starts by urging us all to read and reflect on ‘an extremely serious matter,’ with utmost seriousness and by announcing that India’s healthcare sector is on the verge of a collapse, as explicitly acknowledged by India’s Parliamentary Committee. But it does not mention when this Parliamentary Committee was constituted and when it made the announcement.

I am dealing here only with a few of the many issues it discusses. Quoting a report of a research study reportedly conducted by a News Channel, it goes on into a detailed narration of what percentage of the different kinds of surgeries and medical procedures fall into the bracket of being completely unnecessary, being performed only with mala fide intentions.

Needless to say and to draw attention to the magnitude of the problem and justify the need for issuing this timely public awareness message, these figures are devised to appear very alarming to anyone who reads them. But nothing has been said about when the News Channel conducted its landmark study and which competent authority verified and authenticated its figures.

The next paragraph goes on to say that senior doctors in several reputed hospitals in Maharashtra are paid salaries as high as Rs. 1 crore per month. The reason given for this is that they push for more tests, more treatments, more admissions and more surgeries, without necessity, for which they need to be rewarded.

The source quoted here is the very impressive sounding, British Medical Journal, one of the most prestigious medical publications in the world. But the date of the issue that carries this report is understandably missing.

Now, if a hospital has to pay that kind of money to its doctors, it has to necessarily be a very big and busy one. And a very big hospital necessarily has to have a huge team of senior doctors in addition to a many times much bigger team of junior doctors and para medical staff.

For any sample size, knowing hospital economics as I know, a Rs. 1 crore monthly salary for every senior doctor would quickly leave the hospital bankrupt and the rest of its staff on the pavement outside!

But the idea seems impressive when you are someone with a deep grudge against doctors and hospitals.

Sadly, I never knew that Maharashtra is such a rich goldmine for senior medical professionals, or else I would have headed there years ago, to make my fortune which has been eluding me for forty long years.

This also raises the question of why so many very efficient doctors, who hail from Maharashtra are spread across the length and breadth of this world, striving hard to eke out a decent existence, so far flung from their homes and dear ones, when they are sitting on a goldmine,  back home!

The report then drags a National English Newspaper into its next paragraph and quotes it as saying that many hospitals continue to hold and treat long dead patients in their wards, just to continue to make money. Without mentioning the hospital, it tells of how a deceased fourteen-year-old patient was kept on a ventilator for a full month, before being discharged only when a complaint was filed against the hospital.

A pretty impressive accusation indeed but most people who believe this kind of nonsense, do not know that continuing to pump oxygen into a dead body will not prevent it from beginning to decay and decompose, within a day.

We all know very well that when it comes to medical care, India is among the top performers in the world, with patients from across the world, flocking to our country for advanced medical care. This speaks of the trust and faith they have in our hospitals and doctors and far from being on the verge of a collapse, our healthcare system is touching the heights of progress.

But it is sad that some people still strive hard to tarnish our image with much malice. These outlandish social media stories will continue to do their anti-social rounds, unrestrained and unregulated, as long as we do not have a system that can pin the guilt on the perpetrators of fake posts.

And as long as people enjoy believing in them, they will keep going around, on the merry go round of fantasy. It is very much like what Mirza Ghalib, the Urdu poet says about paradise: Hamko maloom hai Jannat ki haqeeqath, lekin dil ko khush rakhney ko Ghalib, ye khayal acchha hai… which means, We know the reality of what lies in heaven, but to keep the heart happy, the illusion is very gladdening!

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