Chennai: Prime Minister Narendra Modi has joined the hundreds of admirers who paid homage to the people’s doctor Dr S Jayachndran. The ‘Rs 5 Doctor’ passed away on Thursday after suffering from a brief illness. “Chennai based Dr S Jayachandran is a hero. His was a life purely for the betterment of others,” wrote PM Modi on Twittter.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami also mourned the demise of Dr Jayachandran saying “I am deeply saddened by the news of the death of ‘' 5 doctor’ Dr Jayachandran.”
Mentioning his contribution towards the welfare of society, CM Palaniswami wrote on twitter, “He had been serving the poor section of the society since 1971 in Ramapuram and was charging only ' 2 earlier for medical care. It is an immense loss to the society. I extend my deepest condolences to his family and the people of Ramapuram.”
The ‘Makkal Maruthuvar’ Dr S Jayachandran believed in a completely non-commercialised medical care system and served the people of Chennai for 44 years. He started his clinic at his home at Venkatachalam street in Old Washermanpet in 1971 without taking financial help from anyone. In those days, he used to charge only 25 paise. He later shifted the clinic to Kasimedu.
An alumnus of Madras Medical College, Dr Jayachandran would treat patients for free, and if the patient willingly offers him money he would take a token amount of '5. Some of his patients recall that he would help elderly patients with mode of transportation if they were injured and could not afford auto-rickshaws.
While economically weak people saw him as a Messiah, he also had a queue of wealthy patients who would offer to pay him more than his fixed amount of ' 5. Dr Jayachandran insisted on accepting the fee in the form of medicines that he would give to those who couldn’t afford it.
Dr Jayachandran leaves behind a wife, who is also a doctor, and three children. His compassionate attitude towards patients coming from all sections of the society is an example of selfless service for the medical profession.
Family doctor, now only memory of past
The likes of Dr Jayachandran are a rarity now, in the current scenario of commercial healthcare sector and corporate medical treatments. Most households complain that the physicians have lost the humane attitude that used to be there with the family doctors earlier.
“Physicians no longer smile, no longer enquire about the wellbeing of the family, no longer recall the past ailments,” says 89-year-old S Srinivasan. “They are only interested in referrals to super-specialists, unnecessary scans and screening tests, and are very indifferent, shrugging off when the worst happens to the patient, while all the time they are obsessed with billing,” he adds.
Traditionally, the doctors to whom families visited regularly in case of any ailments irrespective of his/her specialisation were called “family doctors”. They would give primary treatment and based on the condition he/she referred the patient to a specialist for further care. Family medicine now stops at the consultant who makes the diagnosis.
“The history of medical treatments of all the members of the family used to be recorded in the mind of family doctors. We now visit doctors with a bundle of medical records and then it goes ahead with further referrals and screening tests that might be even unnecessary,” said 80-year-old G Poorna, a resident of Adyar.
General physician Dr S Vijayaraghavan says, “The approach of doctors towards the patients is more of a disease-centric than pro-active patient centric attitude. There has been a complete shift in the way medical care is being offered in the current scenario than a few decades back. While the advancement of technologies has helped in the treatment of emergency cases, allopathic treatment for the management of chronic diseases has been taken completely in the wrong way.”
“Chronic diseases are mainly the symptoms due to fault in the lifestyle and diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cholesterol, stress and depression and they need not be dealt with medicines only, but lifestyle modifications,” he adds.
Though the advancement in the healthcare sector has helped to come up with remedies for various ailments, the confidence that patients had in medical profession and doctors has deteriorated over the course of time.
Vedic researcher S Ramachandran says that pharmaceutical companies are funding the medical researches and that has created the disease-centric set up in medical field. “A patient gets brainwashed to undergo numerous tests and corporate hospitals hardly reveal the details of treatment being provided to the patient on a regular basis. The medical research is attracting revenue with the growth of medical industry and pharma groups.”
As the advancements in healthcare has changed the face of medical sector to corporate sector, medical practitioners are of the opinion that medical profession cannot be practised in the same way as it used to be 25 years back and technological advances are a necessity.
The era of clinics in every locale headed by a registered medical practitioner is now gone and everyone heads to a hospital in case of headaches and high temperatures, says renowned cardiologist and chairman of Frontier Lifeline Hospital, Dr K M Cherian
“The bond between the doctor and the patient that existed two-three decades ago is now lost. Nowadays doctors need more of a complete diagnostic approach to offer better services and various screening tests such as MRI are done even for small complaints such as headaches. However, people are aware of the commercialisation of the medical set up and they seek treatments in corporate hospitals,” said Dr Cherian.
