Dr. PK Sasidharan
Medical students and their parents ask me – what is the scope of Family Medicine in India?
Please realise that there is no modern medicine without an organised scientific primary care provided by trained family doctors who should be accessible
to every individual and family, in the community setting.
During my four decades of medical practice every day I am facing issues of mismanagement in diagnostic problems due to absence of family doctors.
The base or foundation for medical profession should be built on a well structured and organised primary care.
Since it is missing in India, there is enormous scope for trained primary care doctors all over the country
In fact they only have genuine scope in modern medicine at the moment
The doctor community and the governments are stupid enough to ignore this fact- they do not promote this very essential branch
There are not enough training programs to bring out competent and confident family doctors and governments do not create job opportunities for them
But there is an alternative
My advice to all MBBS doctors is to get trained in family practice( general practice) you will never regret, instead you will enjoy the profession
You can start private clinics and patients will swamp you over the course of time- of course not immediately after starting a clinic
GP doctors making a strong foundation only can avoid pitfalls in modern medicine created by single system based general practice and the stupid culture of doctor shopping
Without a strong base of family doctors, the domination and the increase in single system specialists and the equally stupid authorities promoting medical colleges and tertiary care centres alone is adding insult to injury and is generating all the issues and problems as a package- a never ending headache for modern medicine
There are enough vultures outside waiting to capture opportunities out of these pitfalls and they alone are allowed to make cancerous growth in the huge vacuum provided by missing of family doctors in India
The pity is that our doctors do not recognise this danger and we have destroyed our foundation for the profession in India
It is too late now and hence it is foolish to wait anymore and expect the thoughtless authorities to take an action
In medical profession actions come swiftly only if there are business motives, this is one branch, family practice, which provides benefits only to the people and not to any industry
If the government is not doing anything to post trained family doctors in the PHCs please start your own clinics after training in family practice- patients will come only to you and you will enjoy the profession and the people will benefit by the scientific primary care provided in the community setting.
It will also reduce the damage by a distorted and mutated care provided through the tertiary care hospitals- and the consequent doctor shopping which happens only in India
I am genuinely against all the political parties which do not promote modern primary care.
