How to spot a really good doctor

How can you tell if a doctor is goodItrsquos a serious question because unlike nearly any other profession where selection depends on merit doctors never get selected When the family physician went extinct we entered the age of the random physician either picked because they were conveniently nearby or assigned to you by the hospitalEnough Bollywood movies have used the mantramdashAap daktar nahin aap bhagwan hainmdashto make it a castiron social taboo to question your doctor Evaluating one is sacrilegeAt any rate by the time you need a doctor itrsquos already too late to select one Yoursquore being wheeled into the emergency room on a gurney and the doctor on duty is the doctor yoursquoll get Your life will literally be in the hands of a strangerWhat if it wasnrsquot an emergency What if it was a pain at the sternum and a bloated feeling You feel gassy but an uncle who thought it was dyspepsia ended up getting a triple bypass cardiac surgery that day So you go to a doctor On second thoughts letrsquos make that twoThe first one tells you itrsquos probably the chholeacute you ate for dinner and prescribes PeptoBismolThe second says you have no time to lose and rushes you to the ER They stick tubes into you take blood give blood measure you gauge you assess you stick stents into you and tell you you had a narrow escapeWhorsquos the better physicianI asked a posse of friends what traits theyrsquod look for in a good doctor The top two qualities sought were that he should be a good listener and not be too quick to prescribe pills and injections The doctor who knew it all was nobodyrsquos favorite Humility was well liked Everyone wanted a Santa Claus who would be kind reassuring and comforting even while telling them their days were numbered Of course very few knew such doctors in their livesTherersquos a problem here Human beings are not terribly patient I get tired after listening to the problems of two people in a row Expecting a doctor to listen calmly to dozens hundreds of patients is like requiring all engineers to be logical or all writers to have uncombed hair In 2018 India finally crossed the WHO gold standard with 134 doctors per 1000 patients thanks to 479 medical schools churning out 67218 MBBS graduates each yearI can guarantee they will not all be patient listenersAfter years of locking horns with doctors I have made my own little checklist for sizing them up1 Prefer the doctor who tells you donrsquot really need any medicines at the moment2 Donrsquot trust a doctor who smiles too much or looks jolly every time all the time There has to be a limit to bedside manner3 Love the doctor who encourages you to get a second opinion4 Choose the doctor who doesnrsquot hit you with antibiotics for every little ailment5 Stay with the doctor who doesnrsquot get outraged when challenged Remember most donrsquot have the time to stay updatedDo remember many doctors in hospitals are saddled with sales targets My daughter had problems with her vision The hospital performed a battery of tests including one where she had to stick her head in a chamber and click a button each time she saw a random light blink Based on half a dayrsquos tests they told me her optic nerve might be damaged or worse there could be some problem with her brain A brain scan was recommendedIrsquom a believer in Occamrsquos razormdashall things being equal said William of Ockham the simplest explanation is the best I took my daughter to a different hospital where they established in 10 minutes flat that she just needed new spectaclesTherersquos a deep lesson heremdasha doctor who works in a hospital that has invested heavily in hightech machines that perform hightech tests will tend to prescribe tests you donrsquot need especially if yoursquore covered by insurance After all costly machines will have high EMIsItrsquos easy to forget that doctors are as human as their patients A few can be exceptional worthy of reverence and a few like Hitlerrsquos doctors will be homicidal But most will be average mundane fallible sometimes negligent selfserving or just not professionally sound Every doctor will be a patient during his life and will need a doctor to diagnose himWhat would a doctor look for in another doctor if he were the patient Dr Haniraj Chulani colorectal surgeon at a large Mumbai hospital for over two decades had a unique answer ldquoA good doctor should give his patient the same treatment he would have given himself if he had been in the same conditionrdquoClearly that doesnrsquot happen often enoughHere viewed from there C Y Gopinath in Bangkok throws unique light and shadows on Mumbai the city that raised him You can reach him at cygopigmailcomSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycomThe views expressed in this column are the individualrsquos and donrsquot represent those of the paper