Over the years, the social image of the doctors has taken a dip. There have been two reasons for it. The crass commercialization indulged into by the doctors involved in private practice especially following the onset of the corporate hospitals and the over-stretching of the resources of the government hospitals.

The corporate sector is known well to turn crisis into opportunities. Bringing of the medical practice under the Consumer Protection Act had direct fallout affecting the doctor patient relationship. It gave the doctors the justification for increasing dependence on the radiological and pathological tests. No wonder at the post-graduate level in medical colleges, subjects like radio-diagnosis and pathology have become much sought after.

The costly medical and pathological tests affect the pockets of the patients and even pinch those who are well endowed. Thanks to the rise of medical insurance cover, at least in the metropolitan cities, the patients can now plan and subsidize their personal and family healthcare. But the story in the non-metropolitan cities is still of fleece and exploitation.

The exposure of the patients to private sector for heath care has become more acute due to the over-stretching of the resources at the government hospital. The best example of the same is the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at New Delhi. It’s no more the ultimate centre of medical care in the nation. In fact, I can from personal experience, vouch that reference to the once revered institute instills a sense of fear in both the patients and the attendants.

The failure of the Ministry of Health Affairs to develop similar centres of excellence across the nation as envisaged by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government goes to prove the government’s indifference towards people’s health care. The situation of the government hospitals across the nation is worse. The whole health infrastructure is on the verge of collapse thanks to government apathy and inability towards equipping hospitals with infrastructure, equipments and medicines.

But it’s like the inexplicable Indian rope trick that the network of the government hospitals comes to the rescue of the nation whenever an epidemic or a disaster strikes. India for long has been an epidemic prone nation. The change over the years being that the level of epidemic has progressed from cholera to swine flue. And on each occasion the doctors in the government service have delivered combating the threat putting their lives at risk.

Taking a cue from their past performance, the government once again has decided to fall back on their ability to serve in adverse situations to fight the current epidemic. Upping the drive, the Centre on Sunday asked states to operate separate Out Patient Departments in the government hospitals for detection and treatment of Swine Flu cases. Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad has also asked the states to set up isolation wards for treatment of such patients in designated government hospitals.

Azad has informed that three teams of government doctors and scientists would be in Mumbai for tracing the contact cases and treat them. A similar team is already in Pune where the infection has spread beyond the ‘elite’ areas. The Health Minister has continued to show his reservation about the involvement of the private hospitals for treatment. Azad has said that a decision to this effect will be taken later though he has called upon the state governments to take the private hospitals’ management on board for discussing the issues of concern in detail.

Azad said a final decision to this effect will be taken only after all aspects, including availability of medicine, tests and isolated wards, have been taken into account. Azad’s biggest concern is that how willing and responsible these private hospitals would be in taking the burden of fighting the epidemic at less than extra-ordinary costs.

The dedication with which the doctors are working is already evident from the fact that at least three doctors in the national capital alone have fallen ill after contacting the virus while treating the infected patients. The great fight back by the government doctors can be attributed to what factors? Some would say that sewa (service) is ingrained in our tradition.

But more than the sewa it’s the drill which has been practiced for over a century in times of periodic epidemic that has yielded the results. My late father, who was a government doctor, would narrate stories of cholera epidemic when small band of medics battled a flood of patients. How in the middle of the last century, in the absence of potent antibiotics, the glucose bottle was the only medicine which could be depended upon.

Times have changed. There are better medicines available in the market. The number of trained doctors have also increased manifold. The spirited doctors are still there to deliver. What’s required is government vision and planning. Unfortunately the government’s will is visible only in the times of crisis.