Vijayawada: Patients in Telangana and AP are terrified by the rising incidence of unwanted surgeries and risky procedures carried out by corporate hospitals. Medical experts observed that justifying or identifying such surgeries would be too difficult a task and involves many complications. They suggest that people should avoid directly going to corporate hospitals for small surgeries or diseases, at the primary stage. They said that a second opinion is always advisable from a reputed doctor.
Moreover, it would not be easy to file a First Information Report (FIR) against a doctor if a patient dies in an unwanted surgery, stated Dr C. Srinivas Raju, chairman of Hospital Board, Indian Medical Association, Andhra Pradesh. Unless a specially constituted Medical Board examines the issue and recommends, the police cannot file a case, he explained.
On the other hand, the doctors at the corporate hospitals are forced to reach targets by recommending tests, scans and such expensive investigations. They have to trap certain number of patients for surgeries every month. In fact, the corporate hospitals have been paying high salaries to top surgeons and forcing them to generate revenue at any cost, revealed a working doctor in a corporate hospital in Hyderabad, on condition of anonymity. The doctors in the corporate hospitals are given targets to perform minimum number of surgeries per month, the Hyderabad doctor added.
To reach their monthly targets, the doctors have to suggest unwanted surgeries to patients. The standard procedure and guidelines prescribed by the corporate hospitals are forcing doctors to suggest too many laboratory tests for even small ailments observed medical experts. Dr Raju explained that the corporate hospitals have given guidelines to their doctors that they must carry out all the laboratory tests before confirming even a fever.
Alternate medical opinion for treatment from experts would reduce half the expenditure, said Mr Sachin Kumar, an employee working at Media Sense Health Care Solutions. He said they have been receiving at least 200 calls from various districts in the two states, for a second opinion.
