‘Your comments in London on Indian doctors have harmed our image,’ medical fraternity tells Modi
In a letter to the PM, the medical association said doctors cannot be blamed for the failure of successive governments to provide affordable healthcare.
The medical community in India said on Sunday that comments Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s made about Indian doctors in London recently harmed their image and could hurt the doctor-patient relationship, The Hindu reported. During his visit to the United Kingdom last week, Modi had claimed that doctors in India prescribe only branded medicines because of a nexus with the pharmaceutical industry.
“Indian doctors are known and respected for their proficiency not only in India but across the world, where countries like the UK and the US have acknowledged it time and again,” the Indian Medical Association said in a letter sent to the Prime Minister’s Office. “Maligning the medical fraternity in a foreign land in a language which is derogatory to the core is not expected from the prime minister.”
The Indian Medical Association’s Maharashtra chapter President Dr YS Deshpande told The Hindu, “He [Modi] is talking outside the country where Indian doctors are reputed... His comments send the wrong signal to the audience. They are hurtful.”
The Association of Medical Consultants (Mumbai) also wote to the prime minister. “By and large, Indian doctors are law abiding, honest citizens,” the letter said, according to ANI. “By singling out the medical fraternity and painting all with the same brush, you have hurt, brought shame and humiliation to Indians as a whole. Now the world will look with suspicion at us all.”
The letter said that generic drugs which were available in the market were not enough, and that instead of pointing fingers at doctors, the government should increase pricing control over pharmaceutical companies. “India’s budgetary allocation for health is one of the lowest in the world,” the letter said. “So our population has no option but to rely on private healthcare. Doctors cannot be made scapegoats for the failure of successive governments to provide affordable healthcare.”
Association of Medical Consultants(Mumbai) and Indian Medical Association write to PM Modi expressing disappointment over his remarks in London where he had highlighted malpractices of doctors and had also said doctors attend conferences abroad to promote pharmaceutical firms pic.twitter.com/FkVoNz2hmB
— ANI (@ANI) April 22, 2018
During a town hall session with Indian diaspora in the United Kingdom on April 18, Modi had said: “You probably know that doctors’ conferences are held sometimes in Singapore, sometimes in Dubai. They do not go there because people are ill there; they go because the pharmaceutical companies need them to,” The Telegraph reported.