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On
Fire Again
Global
oil prices are flaring and a hike in diesel, LPG and kerosene prices is
imminent. Here's why you will pay more than rising global prices warrant.
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Dot
and Dotcom
For
most ministers, it's "Sabeer who?" for the Hotmail man Sabeer
Bhatia.
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Forked
Tongue
Buddhadeb
Bhattacharya's tete-a-tete with S.S. Ray on a Calcutta bound flight from
Delhi last week.
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From The Editor In Chief
 The
Greeks realised 2,500 years ago that there should be an ethical code binding
the doctor to his patient. Hence the Hippocratic oath. Among its many
covenants is, "I will follow that method of treatment which according
to my ability and judgement I consider for the benefit of my patient and
abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous." For centuries this
sacred trust between doctors and patients bestowed the medical profession
with a nobility that has endured. Even today in India there are thousands
of competent doctors who are dedicated to the profession and render extraordinary
service. In recent times, however, the sanctity of the doctor-patient
relationship is being besmirched by a pernicious combination of factors.
With the derelict public healthcare system collapsing, there has been
a mushrooming, largely unregulated, of private hospitals to attend to
the rising graph of patients. No doubt, many of these hospitals are efficiently
run and offer state-of-the-art diagnostic and clinical facilities. But
there has also been a profusion of commercialised institutions with hardly
any accountability. It has led to a worrying increase in cases of negligence
and malpractice.
Blame is
always difficult to pin down because the human body is a complex piece
of architecture that can behave quirkily. But the problem is that the
redressal machinery for a wronged patient is weak. The Medical Council
of India, the ombudsman, is toothless, the consumer courts too new in
the game and the law courts too overburdened. Special Correspondent Vijay
Jung Thapa, who anchored this week's cover story on the subject, says,
"It's a case of Hobson's choice: a public health system beyond redemption
and commercialised private institutions with poor accountability."
The problem is serious. Credible regulatory mechanisms must immediately
be established before the relationship between doctors and patients turns
adversarial resulting in all round misery. As the saying goes, physician
heal thyself.
(Aroon
Purie)
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DESPATCHES |
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Targeting offensive and misleading commercials, vigilant viewers are now
setting ethical bounds for the ad industry. INDIA TODAY Principal Correspondent
Farah Baria looks at the new set of dos and don'ts in
Despatches.
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If
the markets don’t recover in the next 48 hours expect the worst, says
V Shankar Aiyar in 
