The title, which sounds like an oxymoron, has a reason to exist. Some data goes first. The medical degree is one of the longest, requiring 5 years of college, plus a full year of training in a hospital and then another full year of ‘social service’, generally in some smaller and more or less remote towns. In total 7 years. And if you want to do a specialty, then you have to take a fairly strict national examination, with a large number of rejections, and then spend 4 or 5 years in a medical center with hard hours. If you have the time and age, you can do a minor, which adds another two or three years to your career.
After all this time, the specialist doctor does not come out very young, he will be around 30 years old or more and will start his professional career, perhaps within a hospital system or will try to break through the competitive private level. State health systems, IMSS, ISSSTE, SSA allow those with this academic level to live with meager salaries; But at least he’s not starving and with a bit of luck he can save up to buy a compact car and get a home loan that’s barely above affordable housing.
Things are different in the particular environment, although most doctors do not easily acquire the soul of a merchant, there are quite a few of them who manage to develop a true spirit, in record time, not of the merchant, but the spirit of the merchants. Real Phoenician.
Unfortunately, in order to reach these levels, a good part, if not all traces of honesty along the way and the idea of seeing the patient not as a patient, but as a ‘client’ must be abandoned. This is so dangerous and dangerous that in some cases the doctor is able to push the patient or his relatives into a desperate economic situation, but at that point they are no longer interested.
I know there will be no shortage of “health professionals” trying to justify this theft, claiming things like time and effort to prepare, their hypothetical or real competence, or debatable arguments at best; But in the event that there is no justification or excuse when, for exclusively financial reasons, the doctor orders studies or procedures that are not necessary for the sole reason of receiving money, by commission, from the laboratory. But the real last straw for these traders is when they operate on a patient knowing that the surgery or procedure they are performing is unnecessary.
Examples of the above can be found almost everywhere; In the intensive care services of some hospitals, where patients are treated in their final stages, who will die no matter what is done and only be able to prolong the agony at a very high cost, hospitalization to put in a “vitamin serum” and when the patient is with all the ills in the world if not Surgery X is performed in a short time, almost urgently.
What do we do if we unfortunately encounter one of these merchant doctors? If we discover it at the first consultation, we must ask for the bill and say goodbye, and turn away from his office like a spirit from the devil; But if we are already subscribed to the service, we must uphold our right to take a second opinion and actually decide; No serious doctor can oppose this. If unfortunately we have already fallen into the hands of one of these pain dealers, there are (hypothetically) cases like the National Medical Jury, CONAMED, in which a doctor-patient agreement could theoretically be reached. If not (which is the safest), please do not hesitate, hire a lawyer and sue the doctor.
It is best to prevent and ask for references as much as possible, and always remember that we are entitled to ask for a second or third opinion. Health is irreplaceable and should not be played with.
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