SECOND OPINION: A surgeon’s ringside view of healthcare
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What lies beneath
A few weeks ago there was news that resident doctors from JJ Hospitals’s ophthalmology department had collectively complained against their current and ex head for harassment and lack of training it initially sounded like an intradepartmental fracas.
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Anatomy of a murder
What followed Kerala doctor Vandana Das’s death is textbook default responses. There was immediate horror and indignation. Also much high-pitched discussion and lament about poor security in hospitals. Some of it is an understandable fallout of doctors feeling insecure
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Baseline Ethical Principles and a Framework for Evaluation of Policies: Recommendations From an International Consensus Forum
This article describes the output of the Baseline Ethical Domain group of an international forum designed to guide stakeholders in considering these aspects of their system.
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Testing, testing, testing
The evidence suggests that all-encompassing blanket testing when you are healthy doesn’t help. Many countries don’t promote or offer them. No scientific organisation recommends them. What’s instead recommended is selective targeted testing
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The right and wrong of Right to Health
How do we define an emergency? Why does the government not do its job? Why should private hospitals treat emergencies? Who will pay? Who will take responsibility to transfer patients? What if people demand emergency treatment
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Message in a bottle
The science of modern medicine now has huge knowledge about the ill effects of sudden withdrawal of addictives but the world of modern hospitals has not been able to come to terms with the challenge of stopping them suddenlyRavi was my patient for a long time
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Running for our lives
The value of brisk walking, jogging and running as a low resource form of exercise should make it the exercise of choice for countries like India. But this is not easy, especially in urban India. Mumbai is a classic example of a severe challenge to accessing open spaces and running tracks
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Wishful thinking on the new year
Does reflection on the year gone by contribute to a better life in the year that follows? Do we collectively learn to improve our daily lives? The rhetoric apart, such questions are too ambitious without the context of period, place and culture.