The corona virus which started from Wuhan in China, decided not to visit any other province of China and seems to have been keeping that promise. No official of Chinese Communist Party came in contact with virus. No prominent leftist politician of influence got infected any where in the world, barring handful few exceptions. China except Wuhan could avoid infections but also it’s frequent and infamous and deadly variants.

India may be facing what is called second wave, has so far faced at least 7-10 variants. The present B-1.617 and B-1.617.2 have wrecked havoc. It happened last month like a cloud burst. Suddenly the active cases rose from on hundred thousand to three millions. And it is possible that this number leave out many with mild symptoms who could not be tested because of over load of work.

Tele-medicine Doctors

In all this mayhem, there is another pandemic, killing people or keeping them sick longer. This is called tele-medicina doctors. It is a new concept and there are no guide lines as to how the doctors should behave. The video call make it possible to observe the patient and all these electronic gadgets like Gluco-meter, Oxy-meter, Blood pressure monitors etc are providing good feedback but the Doctors have blown away the opportunity and created pandemic of their own. First of all the doctors seem to be obvious of simple protocols and SOPs of pandemic which are frequently released by AIIMS, Delhi for medical fraternity. All are available in videos but these Doctors are too smart or too busy to watch these videos. They do not care if a few patients die or live. After all it is the luck of patient.

For example in a corona case where the fever had subsided and gone, Doctor did not start corticosteroids which created cytokine storm and damaged the lungs by 40%. After four days doctor insisted on CT-Scan and continued with broad spectrum antibiotics. It was after the patient started taking corticosteroids on her own that Doctor prescribed another. This is an example of personalised tele-medicine where doctor is available on call.

Secondly the Doctors connect through an app and every time patient requests a consultation, s/he is presented with a new Doctor. It eliminate the process of learning and making good diagnosis. It also complicates the treatment due to frequent change. In one case doctor changed the anticoagulant being given with another one to be given subcutaneously even though there was no immediate threat of coagulation as the tablet was performing and coagulation was already at 1.1 level.

Thirdly doctors, indiscriminately write up a medicine for every symptom. They do not realize that every medicine has side effect and how a patient will handle the side effect without immediate professional help. A patient who had low blood pressure, developed palpitation and the prescription had a prescribed SOS for palpitation caused by High Blood pressure. Imagine the havoc it had caused, prescription would have followed.

Fourthly, it is an open secret that diagnostic labs pay a fixed cut or commission to doctors. It could be anything between 10% to 25%. This motivates doctors to prescribe every possible test of patient without any prior clinical findings, at all. Tell me why a patient with lung operating at 40% and not symptom of Kidney or liver problem is prescribed a liver Fitness and Kidney Test along with routine TLC,DLC and ESR test? The Doctor Randeep Guleria, Director of AIIMS and who is incharge of medical policy in this pandemic, had to give an interview to press calling upon Doctors not to order CT-Scan indiscriminately as it causes 100 times more exposure than X-ray and which may cause cancer but Doctors do not care.

Fifthly, the Doctors too panic. In this case the patient had palpitations due to anxiety/panic. When this was reported to the Doctor, his response was to arrange Oxygen Concentrater or Cylinder or get admitted to hospital. Now that was rather interesting. In this pandemic where Minister of Delhi Government Imtiaz Hussain has been found hoarding 637 Oxygen Cylinders another close associate of Chief Minister and relative of an Ex Judge of Supreme Court namely Navneet Kalra has been arrested for hoarding hundreds of Cylinders and Concentrators, arranging one cylinder is not a quick remedy. Any how call to another doctor solved the problem by giving an anti anxiety medicine to patient.

Sixthly, not one of of the above six doctors, assured the patient that she has recovered from Covid/Corona so more than half the battle is over. None of them assured the patients that do not panic and that there was nothing to worry. Not one the doctors too into account the pollution in Delhi which is causing additional problems for lungs of every person. It is terrible for patient with 40% defective lungs.

Advice to patient:

These are worst times in human history. Doctors are afraid of their patients and are unprepared for this pandemic. Except those who are treating on call in Covid Hospital or post Covid care, others are not experts. They are speed guessing and some were successful with young and healthy patients. Therefore I have unusual advice.

Use your own judgement. Get personalized advice from a doctor who is available on call. Avoid random consultation on tele-medicine apps. After Fever is over take corticosteroids immediately in consultation with Doctor. Trust home remedies for minor problems. Avoid doctors who give long list of medicines as these would create problem and there will be no one to address side effect. Use common sense as in above example, I have shown that none took notice of pollution.

Do pray to God or to whomsoever you feel right.