Fifty seven per cent of Indian medical colleges did not produce a single research paper between 2005 and 2014. Calling this finding in a report published by well-known medical journal Lancet a “shameful statistic” for doctors in the country, Samiran Nundy, surgical gastroenterologist from New Delhi, said here on Saturday that research works should be carried out in India to find solutions for Indian health problems.
At a seminar on ‘Corruption in healthcare’ organised by the Alliance of Doctors for Ethical Healthcare at the Government Medical College, Kozhikode, Dr. Nundy said the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi; the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research, Chandigarh; Christian Medical College and Hospital, Vellore, and K.G. Medical College, Lucknow, accounted for 25% of all the research publications produced in the country during the period.
He said that Indian doctors were going to America and Europe because merit was not being recognised here due to corruption. “Our heroes should not be people who make a lot of money from corporate hospitals, but doctors of yesteryear like P.K. Sethi of the Jaipur Foot who spent all their lives in medical colleges, advancing medicines and educating the young.”
Dr. Nundy said the mortality of individual diseases was worse in India than it was in Bangladesh and Nepal, pointing out that 20% of health costs in the country was due to corruption. “There is corruption in [health] education too, where people have to pay ₹ 50 lakh to ₹ 1 crore to become graduates.
According to a newspaper report, for a postgraduate medical seat in radiology, you may have to pay up to ₹6 crore. It is very unlikely that those students would follow ethics in medical practice. Unless you get patients how are you going to survive?” he said.
Call for political action
K.P. Aravindan, a former professor at the medical college as well as a functionary of the Kerala Sasthra Sahitya Parishad, stressed the need for political action to root out corruption in healthcare. Pointing out that European countries with better health indicators spend around 6-8% of their Gross National Product on healthcare, he said that the allocation on healthcare should be raised in India from the current 1.2% of the GNP.
A manifesto for ethical healthcare was released at the event.