‘Injections can endanger health’

In his essay, Dr. H. V. Wyatt expressed a doubt voiced by some Indian doctors. ‘A doctor trying to educate the patient might well lose patients, a sizeable portion of income and, in addition, provoke the hostility of other doctors. At first sight this appears valid, given the Indian milieu. There is hardly any need for a doctor to substitute injections by some equally lucrative alternative.Consistent demonstrations of relief and cure by therapy that avoids painful and expensive injections are bound to make one’s practice show a progressively upward trend. Almost each one of us will cheerfully plump for a quality product which is also economical – whether it be consumer goods or health care.

Of course, it takes all kinds to make this world. There are patients, who, for various reasons, do not like taking injections at all. They would rather wait for the ‘No injections’ doctor than go to another who will give injections. And then there are the ‘converts’ who wish rapid relief or recovery to normalcy. They form the vast majority. Many of them have been converted by doctors proclaiming the potency of the contents of injection ampoules. These patients, are, thus, brought up on a diet of injections and demand them. It is my experience that re-converting them is not difficult. If we show them equally satisfactory results after oral therapy and emphasise that the latter is less expensive and less painful, they soon learn the limitations of injections. This leaves the few ‘die-hard’ believers in ‘no injections-no cure. It may be difficult to change their conception and we may be forced to leave them to doctors fond of giving injections.