Of late Medicine doesn't excite me too much.........I find myself exhausted and tired .Multiple tasks......OPDs and consultations.....endless hours of talking.Trying to survive in the corporate culture.And yes Feed backs some good ,some bad.In older times Journalists had the privileges of bossing.......They were Media.They can make or break you.Now unfortunately,everyone is a media.You find a blog or a forum.You vent out against who so ever you want.
If you are a blog master of any successful blog you can write or publish only good feed backs about a doctor.Delete or hide the unfavourable ones.I just wish I had a friend or a patient like that..........who would just simply edit my bad feed backs.
As always,there is an incident which makes me write me a post.The latest one........the so popular Gurgaonwatch and it's posts on experience with Max Hospital,Gurgaon.I am sure many of my patients came to me after reading a few good comments by few of my patients.Recently there was a bad feedback about me.And I did request the blog master to withdraw it till the genuineness of that feedback was established,knowing the fact that in past he has deleted some unfavourable comments against his favoured doctor.So what happened......he did withdraw it for the time being till he has done the arbitration......established whether I am correct or the person who left the feedback was correct.Got the feeling of 'Media of past'.And a friendly advise ( I hope at least) that I went overboard in defending myself.
Now what was the feedback?Some unknown person 'A' states that Despite her request to get a downs screening test done between 11 to 13 weeks......I stopped her.Telling her it wasn't necessary.Why would I do it specially for her.when I don't let even a 20 years old get away without a downs screening test.
And then she requested for a quadruple marker and I told her to get a triple marker instead( which incidentally I have stopped writing at least 2 years back).Do I have a proof?Yes I have......My pregnancy folder.....I am so happy I came out with it never realizing that it will turn out to be a medico legal document for me in future.(Anyways there are many gynaecologists who are writing triple marker still and it isn't obsolete.They are at no fault if they get it done.)Now she forgets to write that the triple marker came low risk.I guess it was low risk only otherwise she would have written that I missed a high risk report.
It contains a list of investigations........and double marker and quadruple marker are clearly mentioned there.FAQs in there also explain why should these test be done and are a must.
Double Marker,Triple Marker and quadruple marker all are screening tests and not confirmatory tests with their false positives and negatives both.Too bad if triple marker showed a false negative.Can't help as a gynaecologist.
Now the story is that she complains at 28 weeks of decreased foetal movement and I tell her that 1 movement a day is normal.I must be crazy enough to say so........when again my pregnancy folder clearly tells 10 movement or more in 12 hours.And the she comes to Max Hospital GGN to get a scan done in emergency which is normal as per the ultrasonologist.But she is still not convinced and visits another hospital and doctor whose name she won't divulge......they ask a Doppler ultrasound.........some doctors make the Doppler sound so special...........shows hydrops.No soft tissue marker but hydrops.And the next day there is no heart beat.And an autopsy later it turns out the foetus had Down's syndrome.So I am callous,as per her.I don't know how?I didn't report a triple marker and I didn't do an ultrasound.God hasn't blessed me with a power to predict.
I am not even sure that this is a real patient.......And if it is a real patient then,I don't understand or remember why I would manage her any differently from rest of my patients.
I don't feel like giving any clarification for such baseless allegations.......And this the last such allegation I am responding too.I don't need to prove anything.If I am wrong I will let you know and say a sorry but I don't feel like being responsive to such irresponsible person .
If you are a blog master of any successful blog you can write or publish only good feed backs about a doctor.Delete or hide the unfavourable ones.I just wish I had a friend or a patient like that..........who would just simply edit my bad feed backs.
As always,there is an incident which makes me write me a post.The latest one........the so popular Gurgaonwatch and it's posts on experience with Max Hospital,Gurgaon.I am sure many of my patients came to me after reading a few good comments by few of my patients.Recently there was a bad feedback about me.And I did request the blog master to withdraw it till the genuineness of that feedback was established,knowing the fact that in past he has deleted some unfavourable comments against his favoured doctor.So what happened......he did withdraw it for the time being till he has done the arbitration......established whether I am correct or the person who left the feedback was correct.Got the feeling of 'Media of past'.And a friendly advise ( I hope at least) that I went overboard in defending myself.
Now what was the feedback?Some unknown person 'A' states that Despite her request to get a downs screening test done between 11 to 13 weeks......I stopped her.Telling her it wasn't necessary.Why would I do it specially for her.when I don't let even a 20 years old get away without a downs screening test.
And then she requested for a quadruple marker and I told her to get a triple marker instead( which incidentally I have stopped writing at least 2 years back).Do I have a proof?Yes I have......My pregnancy folder.....I am so happy I came out with it never realizing that it will turn out to be a medico legal document for me in future.(Anyways there are many gynaecologists who are writing triple marker still and it isn't obsolete.They are at no fault if they get it done.)Now she forgets to write that the triple marker came low risk.I guess it was low risk only otherwise she would have written that I missed a high risk report.
It contains a list of investigations........and double marker and quadruple marker are clearly mentioned there.FAQs in there also explain why should these test be done and are a must.
Double Marker,Triple Marker and quadruple marker all are screening tests and not confirmatory tests with their false positives and negatives both.Too bad if triple marker showed a false negative.Can't help as a gynaecologist.
Now the story is that she complains at 28 weeks of decreased foetal movement and I tell her that 1 movement a day is normal.I must be crazy enough to say so........when again my pregnancy folder clearly tells 10 movement or more in 12 hours.And the she comes to Max Hospital GGN to get a scan done in emergency which is normal as per the ultrasonologist.But she is still not convinced and visits another hospital and doctor whose name she won't divulge......they ask a Doppler ultrasound.........some doctors make the Doppler sound so special...........shows hydrops.No soft tissue marker but hydrops.And the next day there is no heart beat.And an autopsy later it turns out the foetus had Down's syndrome.So I am callous,as per her.I don't know how?I didn't report a triple marker and I didn't do an ultrasound.God hasn't blessed me with a power to predict.
I am not even sure that this is a real patient.......And if it is a real patient then,I don't understand or remember why I would manage her any differently from rest of my patients.
I don't feel like giving any clarification for such baseless allegations.......And this the last such allegation I am responding too.I don't need to prove anything.If I am wrong I will let you know and say a sorry but I don't feel like being responsive to such irresponsible person .
4 comments:
I don't think you went overboard at all. The internet is a libel-ridden nightmare. On the one hand people talk of 'accessibility' 'news-as-it-happens' and 'citizen's journalism', but what about editorial integrity? As I journalist trying to maintain the old standards to which you refer, I worry about the number of young people I work with these days who have had no training in media ethics before being given fancy titles such as 'communications manager' or 'head of social media operations'. Every time I see them post information online before first checking its validity, and remind them that they are now a journalist and as such are bound to a code of conduct, they are genuinely shocked. Yes, it's frightening.
That is correct Amelia....My dad was a journalist himself and an editor of Hindi National News paper,Navbharat Times and I know it involves a lot of responsibility if you intend to do it ethically
As we stand today, that couple has decided not to 'pursue' it further.
Great news :-) But you mustn't give up. It's important to go in and bat for yourself every time something like this happens. I know it's a pain but your reputation is worth it.
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