Who is a "Perfect Doctor" in your opinion?In other words,what do you search for in a doctor to consider him/her perfect?
In the recently released Malayalam movie 'Meri Awas Suno' there is a scene where a little girls calls up a RJ and tells him how she knows her mother is a perfect doctor for her patients while she is hardly a perfect parent for herself. It is a very short segment in the movie but it sure tells a big story-something I am sure was felt by a majority of non-medical persons as well.
So coming back to my question-What makes a doctor perfect?
I am quite happy and proud to tell that I am a good doctor.Not a perfect one by any means and the truth is I don't want to be one also! For a patient,a doctor is perfect when he/she delivers the desired results irrespective of the complexity or the stage of the disease at hand. It is quite understandable too.Always when you are at the receiving end,you do not expect anything short of perfection. I firmly believe that it would be the treating doctor who above anyone else be concerned about the complete cure of a patient.But however,some things may not always turn out the way you want it to be. But of late,the response of the patients to such situations have been really depressing.
It has been almost a decade after I finished my graduation.I have always tried to be perfect in each and every thing in my professional life.It is exactly what every doctor does-to give his/her best.However the society has drastically changed over this period.Nowadays,a good number of patients try to focus on only what is wrong with a doctor and treatment modalities.They have started considering it another occupation only.This is exactly why a shift is happening towards practising defensive medicine.
There have been umpteen instances where the society have proved time and again that they don't deserve perfect doctors.One of them had to renounce his life because he went the extra mile to treat a little girl for free,who was rejected by multiple centres; another one was put behind bars for spending his money to alleviate the oxygen shortage of his hospital while another doctor had to leave her life permanently for being a gynaecologist.And nobody really bothers!
So if being a perfect doctor means I have to let go off my family time or missing out on the little pleasures of life,I don't want to be one.
Nah, I am content with being the good doctor!!