A Doctor’s Day Pledge

Arun Mitra

Every year First July is observed as the National Doctors Day to commemorate Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy, the second chief minister of West Bengal and a renowned physician, who was born and passed away on this day. This is a special occasion for medical practitioners to introspect the profession’s contributions, achievements and present state of affairs and to draw strategies for future so as to strengthen the role of medical profession in building a healthy society. Therefore the celebrations on this day should not remain merely a ritual with doctors getting greetings from their friends, family members, and pharmaceutical companies. Many associations of the doctors organize seminars, medical camps, and other such activities on this day. However, a doctor is more than just a professional, and the practice of medicine is not only a profession but a passion. A doctor tries to allay both the physical and mental suffering of fellow human beings. It is therefore important that medics work for the betterment of health through scientific analysis of various factors involved in the causation of disease.

Through the advancement in science and various researches by far doctors have learnt that disease is caused because of various factors and is affected by several socio-economic, environmental and political processes. From the ancient description of the diseases in different parts of the world, people have evolved modern scientific medicine which has tried to study the above-mentioned in an evidence-based manner.

Science has moved forward, and so has medicine. From the time of mythical treatments when man had little knowledge of the happenings around, the human society developed ways of medicine which played a big role during that period. However, advancing the existing knowledge the modern scientific developments in medicine changed the concept of pathological processes that caused the disease. The new technology during the recent period has speeded up the advances conceptually as well as in their application manifold.

It is however unfortunate that even today there exists gross inequity in the health care delivery system to various sections of population. This is true globally. The economic disparities between the erstwhile colonial powers and the present day developing countries are reflected in the healthcare delivery as well. This was very obvious during the global COVID pandemic. Many of the developing countries lacked technical know-how and infrastructure for the management of COVID. They were exploited by the big pharmaceutical companies, particularly the vaccine-producing ones. The governments of these countries were made to sign one-sided agreements if they wanted to purchase vaccines.

As doctors, it is painful to see patients in such conditions dying without proper quality healthcare. Present-day public spending on health is only around 1.2% of the GDP against the required 6%. Doctors should impress upon the government to increase budget allocation to health.

There is need to increase wages of the population to strengthen their purchasing capacity, and to ensure healthy environment and good working conditions. A clean drinking water supply and healthy nutrition is the basic requirement to prevent diseases. There must be changes in the policies which affect the health of the people.

It is a matter of great worry that there is increasing role of corporations in medical education and health provision. Their motive is only profit making which is against the basic concept of health for all. Doctors have to learn to resist the pressure of commercialization to fulfill the commitment to health to all.

[Dr Arun Mitra is a Practicing ENT Surgeon in Ludhiana, Punjab. He is also the President of Indian Doctors for Peace and Development (IDPD) www.idpd.org; counter currents.org]

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Frontier
Vol 57, No. 5, Jul 28 - Aug 3, 2024