Are we going to have an endless medical inflation?

I didn't want to say this but to hell with it, I'll say it anyways since many posts here are veering towards a lot of pomposity:
Medical education at MANY medical colleges is VERY hard hit by inflation and thus charge huge capitation fees.
Their students have to make up / recover that expense.
:rolleyes::rolleyes::rolleyes:
Succintly put across the root of all problems.
 
Comparisons here between healthcare and audio or 5 star hotel is pathetic.
How can some one compare a hospital to a hotel or hifi audio.You are comparing basic need /right/necessity to lifestyle/luxury. Entirely different context.The argument seen here is people would pay so much for lifestyle but complain on hospital bill. One is basic need vs the other is a niche market. How can be the pricing be comparable or justified. No one goes to hospital for honeymoon. And a choice of hospital is not always a choice, most of the time it could be the only option, say an accident, location or a specific referral or treatment. Correct me if I am wrong.

Doctors should be paid , yes, and I assume they are the top paid and well respected professionals generally regardless of countries.But like any other profession,a doctor is not born the day he is out of the college or university I guess. He works his way through. How can some one complain about the pay he received in the initial days of his profession to an experienced person in any other profession be it a sweeper or a toilet cleaner.The arrogance against sweeper or toilet cleaner professions are seen here. This should change and the country will change.
 
Well, I recently ended up getting billed 4k for my driver for a GERD related chest pain that mimiced a heart attack. It was a biryani he ate and since he was my acting duty driver, i bore the bill. Although it was an ER facility of a big hospital, for an ECG and some pan D and muccaine gel, a prescription and a couple of nurses smiling at him saying "you are ok", a 4k bill was on the high side of things. Definitely he could not afford such a bill. Does it justify this charge?
It depends on the hospital, If you go to Apollo or their competitors. This is the reality.

State owned hospitals are plenty, will workout free.. but we hesitate to go there for many reasons.

Its democratic country. Peoples (voters) quality will reflect on the quality of State.
 
So it continues to the utter delight of the bleeding heart liberals

Blackmail and arm twist hospitals and doctors into providing free treatment


Continue on the same path and hospitals and surgeons will stop these procedures

The politicians go to Singapore, we will sit here and suck thumbs
 
4k bill was on the high side of things. Definitely he could not afford such a bill. Does it justify this charge?
Yes it does justify depending upon the type of Hospital You Visit. Also on the Country, it'll be easily 40k in some developed nation.
Will the Medical Inflation Continue? For another decade I don't see it'll come down and will go along with real inflation rate in the economy (Don't get Mislead by GOI inflation figures).

After a Decade, Probably the AI adoption, Robotics will be more reliable and VFM for Medical Establishments after considerable initial investment. That will drive the pricing down due to reduced input costs & competition etc. As long as its dependent on Manual Labor requiring trained individual to impart a Standard of Care, its going to be Costlier Year after year. But interestingly Indian Healthcare is one of the most cost effective in the world to the standard of care and availability is concerned.
 
Yes it does justify depending upon the type of Hospital You Visit. Also on the Country, it'll be easily 40k in some developed nation.
Will the Medical Inflation Continue? For another decade I don't see it'll come down and will go along with real inflation rate in the economy (Don't get Mislead by GOI inflation figures).

After a Decade, Probably the AI adoption, Robotics will be more reliable and VFM for Medical Establishments after considerable initial investment. That will drive the pricing down due to reduced input costs & competition etc. As long as its dependent on Manual Labor requiring trained individual to impart a Standard of Care, its going to be Costlier Year after year. But interestingly Indian Healthcare is one of the most cost effective in the world to the standard of care and availability is concerned.
very well put.

something which came to me recently. cost of a doctor will go up but with Gen AI and robotics will make it more scalable so interesting times.


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So it continues to the utter delight of the bleeding heart liberals

Blackmail and arm twist hospitals and doctors into providing free treatment

I think you should actually read that article again. If you do, you will know that there was no arm twisting or blackmailing (I'm assuming here that you implied this applied to the article). Firstly, the ZTCC cannot mandate any hospital to do this - it was a suggestion. A request. An ask. And the hospital "cooperated" with that. Clearly says so in that article.
Also, while your insider insights into this "industry" are appreciated, what I don't appreciate is that in your posts, you freely throw around labels like "liberals", "communists", "pseudo bleeding heart" etc. I'm sure we all can have a discussion without the need to resort to this. Labelling people doesn't make any persons opinion stronger/weaker.
Continue on the same path and hospitals and surgeons will stop these procedures

The politicians go to Singapore, we will sit here and suck thumbs
No, they won't! They have too much invested in getting educated and in infrastructure to provide the service and there are too many cash cows to milk.

While it is clear that you feel strongly about all this, I also think you are taking this way too personally than you need to.
 
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Then you have no idea of the power of "suggestion" by govt officials. If you don't toe their line, they will shut you down.

As was seen so often during COVID times. Where a Babu who can't string two coherent sentences together sealed and shut down hospitals because casualty admitted a late night patient who was tested COVID positive later.

The lone synapse does not fire to comprehend that an emergency admission means stabilise patient first and then investigate

The sealing meant, at a time when open beds were scarce the tertiary hospital was scrambling to find other hospitals to transfer their patients to.

I'm sure the hospital authorities must have cursed the patient under their breath when for a highway accident they bypassed 3 major municipal hospitals to land up at their door late at night!

I just love being schooled in public by lay people when my wife works on the kidney donor side of transplants and i had a kidney transplant surgeon friend, who sadly passed away during COVID, telling me over coffee the first hand nitty gritty of the transplant world in Mumbai
 
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I have no idea which la-la land members of this forum live in, but if you want to do anything in India, "suggestions" by those in power have to necessarily be taken seriously

When i applied for my own water connection, the AO called over a plumber, conveniently hanging around the ward office and "suggested" he get my contract

When i applied for my electricity meter, i was "suggested" the electrical contractor to employ. The final ok was given when the BEST inspector came over and simply asked me the contractor's name

I was "suggested" an amount by my contractor to be paid to the inspector's home charity fund when he came over to inspect the drainage line before passing the water connection.

This is an unsolvable puzzle, the water dept won't sanction a connection if there is no drain to the premises, the sewage dept won't allow you to connect to the building drains if you don't have a water connection present. So what came first, chicken or the egg.

When the local police officer or shaka pramukh brings someone over and then "suggests" whether "something can be done for him"

And the piece de resistance, i am randomly served a notice to pay for a licence that I'm not liable for, i go to the ward office to meet the clerk who then decides that i also need to pay 2 years arrears, i go to the officer to complain, and he "suggests" that i should pay up as the amount is small and the clerk has targets to meet!! And in his next breath he tries to mooch free treatment for himself and wife!!

You can very well believe that I "cooperated" with every "suggestion" that was made

Poor Jaslok and the transplant team were in the same situation
 
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You mean the same way we are “suggested” surgeries, and treatments?
You are not, you are given a treatment plan and you are free to choose the doctor, hospital, class, cashless or reimbursement

No one ever holds a gun to your head to be treated by specific doctors or hospitals

Try and raise the level of discourse and not get bogged down by your inadequacy

No doctor you ever consulted has the power to sack you from your job, shut down your office or factory, delay indefinitely the opening of your establishment
 
No doctor you ever consulted has the power to sack you from your job, shut down your office or factory, delay indefinitely the opening of your establishment
Worse, you could be disabled for life or dead!
 
Worse, you could be disabled for life or dead!
That's why I had said that people should first introduce themselves with qualifications etc

My professor always said, engage brain into gear before wagging tongue

If you believe that a doctor's suggestions can disable you or kill you

Then you first need to see a psychiatrist and stop consulting tantriks
 
Your professor is wise, I would've taken that advice if I were you.

Unfortunately, because we common folk lack medical education all we can do is trust, and put our faith in our doctor's advice/suggestions; only for another medical professional to tell us that it was the wrong diagnosis or the treatment plan. Sometimes it's too late, the damage is irreversible. When you go for a second or a third opinion and every doctor has a different treatment plan who do you trust?
 
Sometimes it's too late, the damage is irreversible. When you go for a second or a third opinion and every doctor has a different treatment plan who do you trust?
There is a reason medicine and law are called a "Practice" the treatment is not a exact science and is based on experience of the doctor as well..based on the complexity and its continuously learning on the job.

Usually Doctors consult amongst themselves as well based on the complexity to ensure they are on the right path of treatment . most do not mind a second opinion but all hate a google search since in most cases the context is wrong.

Very often the doctor is more circumspect than he/she needs to be as a malpractice suit or a beating is around the corner as a high risk and either of them could mean an end to a career.
 
That's why I had said that people should first introduce themselves with qualifications etc

My professor always said, engage brain into gear before wagging tongue

If you believe that a doctor's suggestions can disable you or kill you

Then you first need to see a psychiatrist and stop consulting tantriks
Psychiatrist is available for anger management too. For your age, I dont think you must react so heatedly. There are cool ways to answer too and put across your POV. We dont intend such threads to tickle anybody's sensitivity either and we take your side of the argument too and if you feel in someway it is related to you and your practice which is not the case, then you (may) react this way. This is a general discussion and mainly aimed at the bigger boys in the business such as Apollo, Leelavathi etc... Please! You could get a stroke if you take it personally. Shall I request the mods to delete this thread?
 
Your professor is wise, I would've taken that advice if I were you.

Unfortunately, because we common folk lack medical education all we can do is trust, and put our faith in our doctor's advice/suggestions; only for another medical professional to tell us that it was the wrong diagnosis or the treatment plan. Sometimes it's too late, the damage is irreversible. When you go for a second or a third opinion and every doctor has a different treatment plan who do you trust?
So let me walk you through the usual process of doctor patient interaction

You meet your doctor and tell him your complaint.

Please don't Google your symptoms and tell him your diagnosis and treatment plan.

If this is for a second opinion tell him upfront and not use your earlier consultations that you were unhappy with as a test for the next guy. Your earlier investigations will help him reach an earlier diagnosis and save you money

Let's say you have a painful swollen big toe on your right foot

Correct and true history helps in reaching the correct diagnosis

So prior to that he will have a multiple choice in his head, is called differential diagnosis

It's the history and tests that eliminates other diagnosis

So if your uric acid levels are high he may suspect gout and treat with meds, but if the tests come back negative you will accuse him of taking cuts for unnecessary tests

If it's after a bad nail infection or ingrown nail, you may need surgery, but if you don't believe him you will go around hobbling calling him a crook wanting to operate without necessity

If it's an abscess after an injury, it may be drained and bandaged, but repeated dressings may mean that you will accuse him of padding the bill while he is checking for healing and no gangrene

If you are diabetic and it turns black it may be gangrene and needs amputation, but some neighbour may tell you it's fungal infection like how he had and give you his half used ointment tube. When you lose half your foot you forget what the doctor first told you

If something heavy fell on it there many be a bone fracture, but since you are still able to walk you refuse the xray and you get lifetime pain due to fibrous healing but blame the doc anyway

If there are bite marks on the toe and you lie to the doctor that a dog bit you, you will get antibiotics, ointment, tetanus and rabies shots, with a warning to see if the dog dies. when actually someone with a foot fetish got frisky with you and you are too embarrassed to say so. At which point a wrong diagnosis and treatment is given. So true history with appropriate tests is most important

Modern medicine is pretty straightforward and a process of elimination

Physical examination accompanied by tests helps to eliminate most common problems

When a patient says that they are unhappy with a series of doctors, diagnosis and treatment then we call them window shoppers who keep seeking the diagnosis and treatment that they are fixated on. Such patients never stop till they finally get the doctor they deserve.

I was once referred a patient where the son did not want to operate on his father's knees, they went to 5 different surgeons pretending to be fresh new patients everytime.

They did every test and xray and scan at every clinic and were given the same diagnosis that knees are too far gone, surgery is the only option.

They left every clinic calling the surgeon a crook who only wants to operate

There's no cure for that
 
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Let the thread be alive. We have arguments from both the sides. Hospital bills are a concern globally. I have read countless threads on the topic on reddit. Also about student loan repayments.

The system has been set in such a way to "benefit" a very few. This is not just in our country. Even doctors do not have a say in it. I have doctors in my family. Sometimes they feel bad about their patients. They even suggest their patients to get some treatments done at government hospitals as they know their patient cannot afford the bills at the hospital they are working at.

I can understand why some of our fms in the medical fraternity reacted sharply here. I believe they are serving their patients honestly, and yet treated like a corrupt politician. It is natural that they are disheartened. Most patients do not have the liberty to choose the treatment option even though the hospitals say otherwise. Reason: the patient isn't educated enough to know whether the treatment plan is necessary or not.

The OP also didn't mean to offend anyone. He is disappointed as well. He has every right to be.

A doctor is a doctor. S/he is the expert in the field. We are literally at their mercy that they don't take us for a ride. The advancements in the field are only due to the relentless pursuit of the selfless, brilliant doctors. We trust them. We pin our hopes on them. But like every other profession, some exploit the needy.


We can only hope karma bites back at them one day.​
 
I do not disagree with you, as you see the Doctors' side of the view, and I the patients'. Both of us aren't wrong, just the style of communication.
BTW, who's going around biting peoples' toes, and where do we find them?
 
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