I'll tell you the story of a patient we had in our Surgery ward.
He was an elderly man who presented with cellulitis and wasted way too much time agreeing to surgery. The result? A large ulcer created on the dorsum of his foot after surgical debridement:
Picture blurred due to popular demand
Now, there was nothing wrong with this ulcer. No granulation tissue and it was bleeding too - which is paradoxically a good sign of healing. The doctors assessed it and declared him fit to discharge. All he would have to do is come to the OP for follow-up and dress up his wounds with good hygiene.
But an ulcer of this size will be nonetheless scary for the patient. And it's really hard to drive home the point that bleeding is a good thing. He and his family felt they needed to stay until the ulcer heals and protested that the hospital was forcing them to discharge.
At this point, in a private hospital, if the patient is willing to pay, they can stay as long as they want. But you can't do that in a government setup that's running with limited resources. That bed he's occupying has a huge demand and we can't afford to have patients who don't need in-patient care.
The man got discharged anyway but the family was constantly complaining. I'm pretty sure they would have told anyone who would listen that the hospital coerced them out without curing the illness, and much worse created more problems for them instead of solving them!
And the common public would have gladly joined them in the rebuke of the sheer arrogance, selfishness and carelessness of the government hospital doctors without even asking what happened.
Moreover, the government doctors “getting paid really well” is not really true. Just a few months back, one of our neurologists resigned from his government job for another one in private sector - inspite of job security and all the other perks here.
The pay you get in the private sector is just WILD. If money is the primary goal of a doctor, no way he would be working in government sector (unless you are high up in the administrative side)
Indian government healthcare, especially TN's, is extremely good at what it does, given the limited resources and manpower it has to work with. There might be one or two rude doctors, sure.
But you don't see the forest for the trees and the forest is damn fine, I'd say.
(And the rude patients far, far exceed the rude doctors anyway)
~ Kook kannan.