'Doctors are scared of litigation'

A few cases of unethical practices cannot be used to brand all medical professionals as dishonest, top doctors have opined, saying today's doctors order more tests on patients as they were very scared of litigation.

"It is only limited to some people," senior cardiologist K.K. Talwar said at a discussion on medical ethics at the India International Centre here Friday evening. The discussion 'Unethical Medical Practices: How can I save myself' was organized by Consumers India, a forum on unethical medical practices.

Talwar said the only option for patients who wanted to save themselves from such doctors was to go to good ones.

"Because of some people some wrong things have happened. It is a challenge to professionals to admit that they are doing something wrong," he said.

Navin Dang, consultant microbiologist and director of Dr Dang's Lab Pvt. Ltd, said there are good doctors and there are bad doctors.

"As time has evolved, some grey areas have crept in the medical profession," he said questioning whether it could be blamed on the total corporatization of the medical profession.

Dang said it was not true to say that the younger generation of medical professionals lacked ethics. "Lots of people of the younger generation are ethical too. There are only a few unethical ones".

Talwar contended that society should also look at the other side of the debate. He explained that there was nothing certain in medical science and increased instances of litigation against doctors alleging medical negligence have made them wary.

"Doctors have been made very defensive. They order a battery of tests which are not needed as they are scared of litigation," he said.