Dr.Killer gets killed for killing a Killer’s wife.

The first week of January of 2012 started with a horrific and violent Incident, with the murder a medic by a disgruntled spouse of a deceased patient. The murdered doctor was hacked to death by an auto rickshaw driver Mahesh. Dr T Sethulakshmi, a chief medical officer with ESI Tuticorin and a private practitioner was accused of wrong diagnosis and treatment, which lead to the death of the murderer’s wife Nithya.

Shocked by the gruesome incident, the Tamil Nadu wing of Indian Medical Association called for a strike for two days. The professional Association went a step further and asked all its members to cancel out patient appointments and boycott elective surgeries. The fear psychosis among the doctors is understandable, when such an untoward incidence occurs to a fellow colleague. Such mass protests by Doctors were recently observed in the state of West Bengal also. All the Government Hospitals remained passive to the patients needs; the outpatient visit rate decreased substantially, the Medical service of the Government came to a standstill.

Whether the striking Doctors are fighting for a right cause? Whether the boycott call of IMA is justified? Should we empathize on the murdered doctor? Was there, even as iota of Injustice in the killer’s rage? As members of a civilized society, whether these doctors deserve our consideration and support?

 The answer for all the aforesaid questions should be an unambiguous, no. The Government employed doctors do have a unique privilege of- private consultation, which many of the employees of the private sector don’t have. Employees, whether of Public or Private sector, do have a written or an unwritten service rule, which forbids them from self or second employment. TN Government Doctors don’t have any rules. The doctor’s surgery failed, as her private clinic attached to her house was ill-equipped for complex surgeries. The doctor was neither an Obstetrician nor a Gynecologist nor a surgeon; she was a qualified Anesthetist who normally is required for all kinds of Surgeries. A pre-natal surgery by an Anesthetist in an ill-equipped clinic is gross case of professional Misconduct. It never occurred to the IMA to condemn the delinquencies of its own members. The Doctors boycotted their public duty for which they were paid for in the mornings and attended to their private practice in the evenings. None of the private clinics closed in protest. The doctors often cheat the Public; Private Misconduct are never Governed by service rules. Patients approaching Public Hospitals are often routed to private clinics, no conflict of interest there. A private clinic was the cause of the tragedy, yet no private doctors obliged to IMA’s call to boycott, but the public Hospitals suffered.

It’s the right time; the private practice of the Government Doctors must be curbed. The petty shop surgery clinics must be tightly monitored by strict regulations. IMA must strictly adhere to its own professional code of conduct and must stop its political antics.