COVID 19 Is Exposing the Truth About Avoidable Surgeries

Doctors are becoming more like salesmen than lifesavers

I have at least five relatives who died post an angioplasty surgery. There was nothing odd about it. It happens, right? Doctors cannot save everyone. But can they kill someone?

My grandma had cataract. She was more than eighty years old when she stood stubborn on her decision to get an operation. We tried telling her that it could be risky. But the doctor was confident. Months after she got her surgery, she was found lying unconscious in the kitchen. One of the veins on her brain broke and had caused a blood clot. She would suffer for another six months before leaving the earth.

I am not accusing. But it seems odd. Not because it happened to me, but because the numbers say so. Doctors are like salespeople. It is not a baseless argument, because the doctors are saying that they have quotas to meet every month. Not to save lives, but to meet the revenue targets.

It is true that most of these surgeries are low-risk, but increases the revenue for the hospitals. It does not make it right though. Uneducated people get exploited a lot because of this. They succumb to the pressure put by the doctors and then try to arrange the hefty amount needed for the “life-saving” surgery.

As the COVID 19 took the limelight, many multi-speciality hospitals have become empty. The surgery tables have been collected to empty rooms, where they lie, collecting dust and cobwebs. Surgeons are facing pay cuts, as they cannot generate more revenue by prescribing avoidable surgeries.

People realize that they can live indoors, and maybe live longer without angioplasty surgeries. All the people who are scared for COVID 19 are visiting the small clinics and the government hospitals. The big hospitals, with interiors like five-star hotels, are as quiet as graveyards. Where are the patients with strokes and heart attacks? Across the world, hospitals saw a decrease in emergency procedures for heart attacks. Spain reported a 40 % reduction in emergency procedures for heart attacks during the last week of March compared with the period before the pandemic spread.

What could be the reason? Did something change during COVID? Or are the doctors not getting enough chances to meet the quota imposed by the management of private hospitals? We never know for sure.

Not every patient who consult doctors fall prey to the trap. There are innumerable testimonials from patients who have got their shoulder pain or back pain cured with physiotherapy, although surgery was prescribed by the doctors.

Whenever I have a mouth ulcer, and I ask Google about it, I am convinced each time that I have got cancer. It is scary when you have all the symptoms. Imagine what a doctor could do. I am convinced that a doctor can successfully trap someone into an avoidable surgery.

The big hospitals are doing pretty bad now. They are waiting for the pandemic to subside so that they can go back to business, and doctors can go back to being salesmen. I won’t be surprised to know if the doctors were busy learning the art of selling from Coursera or EdX. They need it as much as the corporate salesmen.

Some studies suggest that unnecessary surgeries are one of the leading reasons for hospital deaths in the US. To cite an example, clinical trials have shown that spinal fusions for back pain do not lead to improved long-term outcomes when compared to physical therapy and core strengthening exercises. But still, the hospitals go ahead with these surgeries, because that is what is more economical.

Doctors take a sacred oath when they study medicine, and they are nurtured to become social workers. Many doctors risk their lives to save others. But there is a fraction of them, who succumb to the business nature of the management and do unethical medical practices to protect their jobs. By that statement, I do not mean to take the blame away from them, but I am trying to blame all the concerned parties. That would include me and you, the doctors, and the hospitals