Vol , Issue Date of Publication: July 01, 1998

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DISCUSSION

A short note

Ravi Ramakanthan


Did your medical education include any discussion of medical ethics?

NO.

How much time do you estimate was spent in any discussion of ethics, in all your years of medical school ?

NIL.

Please describe a situation in medical school in which you had to make a decision which was not based on medical knowledge alone. What were the principles you used to resolve it ?

Don’t remember any instance.

Have you even been disturbed by the practices by your seniors and teachers, their behaviour with patients and their relatives? Were you able to discuss your discomfiture with them?

Yes. Several times. Most involved not behaving politely with patients. I have never addressed this issue with my seniors directly . I have heard of several unfair practices by my contemporaries and teachers regarding medical education. Though I am reasonably certain that these are true, in the absence of hard proof I have never raised these issues with the concerned persons.

The fact that students entering capitation fee colleges make a huge capital investment that must be recovered as soon as possible after graduation is said to be behind many medical malpractices. Do you agree?

Perhaps. But, as things stand today, there seems to be no need for such reasons to be present for both medical teachers and medical practitioners to indulge in malpractice.

About the Authors
Ravi Ramakanthan

Professor and head of department of radiology

KEM hospital, Mumbai 400 012.
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