The doctor was staring at my ECHO readings. He had a convoluted, distorted face, the scariest I had ever seen.

“Doctor, could you tell me what’s happening to my heart”, I ejaculated.

“It’s ok now but later in life, you could have a heart attack”, he exclaimed. That’s it.

I paid Rs 3000 for ‘it is ok now’.

Dear doctors, you are fighting for people’s lives. You have the toughest job in the country but still, you get beaten by patients every day. Most of you are caring but a few of you could work on one aspect – COMMUNICATION.

I wish to share a few humble suggestions:

• When a patient is admitted, please learn about their entire case history. Don’t tell them later that you didn’t tell me.

Recently, one of my friends was admitted for COVID. While admitting him, the family forgot to mention that he had a few other medical complications. Please don’t blame the family. They are not medical experts. At the time of admitting the patient the family members are highly stressed, they forget to mention many details.

• Please make it clear, what process you will be adopting and how much it will finally cost. This will give the family an idea of how much money has to be organized.
• Kindly avoid dropping sudden bombshells, for eg. Need Rs 50,000 for an injection. The families are totally unprepared for this.
• Appraise the family on a daily basis about the patient’s health conditions, even though they may not measure up to your intellectual levels.

You are the most important member of our community. Just a humble request – DO COMMUNICATE WITH CARE, instead of its ok now, but you can have a heart attack later.

By Shiv