How many times have you been ill and procrastinated about going to a doctor, preferring over the counter drugs and self medication to doctors’ prescriptions? I happen to be one of those people who have steadily developed paranoia of visiting doctors. Unable to shake of that fatalistic fear, that they will diagnose me with some incurable disease and then pump my body with a whole host of drugs and medical tests which I do not need.

It’s happened before and it will continue to happen. This money making racket that seems to have taken root in the so called best hospitals like Max, Fortis and Apollo. I had been diagnosed with obstructive jaundice as a result of gall stones only to be sent for an endless round of medical tests, to become a medical guinea pig for a bunch of incompetent doctors for whom I had become a way to earn big bucks.

Then there’s the time my mother had a routine health check up to be told she could have a malignant tumour in her uterus. Then there was the time my pregnant friend was forced to have a Caesarean delivery. Two thirds into her labour my desperate friend was wheeled into the OT. Her woes continue till today after contracting TB as a result of the operation. This was in Fortis La Femme in GK 2, New Delhi. A hospital that claims to be the best neo natal facility in India.

Are doctors in India just certified murderers?