When Thorns Prick Their Own Flowers : The Betrayel by Medical Frauds

When Thorns Prick Their Own Flowers : The Betrayel by Medical Frauds
by Nisaar Y. Nadiadwala on Tuesday, November 22, 2011 at 5:18pm

    When you are sick your health is suppose to be repaired by the most noble Professionals, Medical Doctors. When you buy a medicine you are buying to regain your health. But what happens when you receive news that there are fake medicines of branded companies and are sold in many places? You fell betrayed. After all thorns are suppsoed to protect the flowers from being plucked. But what happens if the thorns start pricking its own flowers?

     Our Doctors and our Medicine manufacturers are our thorns. They are suppose to save us from being plucked by some diseases. I happened to be a prestigious Hospital of Mumbai, where they had placed a warning in its corridor. There are 5000 fake Drug companies!!! This attention drawing excercise drew me to do a little research on fake medicine and other frauds in medical industry.

   Estimates vary on the number of these drugs made in India. The Indian government says 0.4 percent of the country's drugs are counterfeit and that substandard drugs account for about 8 percent. But independent estimates range from 12 to 25 percent. Experts say the global fake-drug industry, worth about $90 billion, causes the deaths of almost 1 million people a year and is contributing to a rise in drug resistance. WASHINGTON POST 11 Sept 2010..Rama Lakhsmi

   India Today 3 Nov.  2011 reported..They did a sting operation in Meerut and approached a local doctor and bribed him to sell fake medicines. ****Link****

 Even Medical Insurance seems to become almost unannounced compulsion. If you dont have a medical insurance then dare you get sick. Medical insurance has made medical expenses very dear. Keep aside the poor class, even the higher middle class will also find it hard to bear the expenses of sonography,  X-rays, consulting fees, multiple blood reports.....So people now look at some one else to pay their expenses. Enter the Insurance companies. Their advertisment is very alluring, the calculations on the paper is very lucrative...Just pay a little amount and your entire medical expenditure will be covered by the insurance company. 

    NO wonder we see a lot of banks have also jumped into  this business of treating people by scissoring their accounts. Unless they earn a huge profit they will not start an insurance company. No one questions these insurance companies as to what are their sources of income? On what bases do they boast of providing such a huge amount of medical expenditure. No one questions the reasons for fattest salary offered by these companies to their managers and other HODs. How will those people who cannot even afford to buy a medical insurance package afford to meet a sickness? It will be a foolish fantasy to desire a sickless society...wont it?

 I spoke to a doctor friend regarding this and he sighed "What can we do? It is also very expensive to be a doctor these days !" I shot back " Did you pay capitation fees to become a doctor?" He replied  in affirmative. "So you have to get your money back with returns. " That is why perhaps many doctors do not mind being hands in gloves with some insurance companies too. And this has de graded the status of doctors in the society. From "Doctor Saab" to doctor..From saving the lives of lot of people now  a large number of them are just busy in prescribing cough and cold syrups...

Author : Nisaar Nadiadwala speaks and writes on socio-educational problems from Islamic Perspective. He can be reached at...nisaar_yusuf@yahoo.com

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