Tag: doctors

SC to hear plea against fixation of hospital rates on Sept 10, issues notice to Centre

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Supreme Court on Monday, April 29, agreed to hear the plea against the rate fixation of hospitals and issued a notice to the Centre on the same. The next date of hearing is September 10.

The top court observed that rate fixation will lead to underhanded practices. “How can the Centre prescribe uniform fees for all hospitals? Rates are a function of market forces, one doctor may charge Rs 100 and another may charge Rs 10,000,” the court observed.

Associations of doctors and hospitals moved the apex court against rate fixation as it challenged Rule 9 of Clinical Establishment Rules 2012. The rule provides the Centre to prescribe a range of rates for hospitals.

The lawyers for doctors and hospitals argued investors will not come to the healthcare sector in India with leading technology if rate fixation is allowed. “We cannot have rate fixation. We cannot have a one-size-fits-all approach. We have challenged the validity, and legality of Rule 9, no power is available to fix rates. There has to be regulation of the profession, but can’t have rate fixation,” the plea said.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Thousands of doctors in Britain walk off the job in their longest-ever strike

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Thousands of doctors walked off the job in Britain on Wednesday, the start of a six-day strike that was set to be the longest in the history of the state-funded National Health Service.

Managers said tens of thousands scheduled appointments and operations will be cancelled during the walkout across England and Wales by junior doctors, those in the first years of their careers. The doctors, who form the backbone of hospital and clinic care, plan to stay off the job until 7 a.m. on Tuesday.

Senior doctors and other medics have had to be drafted in to cover for emergency services, critical care and maternity services. Julian Hartley, chief executive of heath care managers’ organisation NHS Providers, said the strike came at one of the toughest times of the year for the health service, immediately after the Christmas and New Year period because of the pressures the demands, and of course we’ve got flu, we have got COVID.

So there’s going to be an impact on patients that will be significant, he said. Britain has endured a year of rolling strikes across the health sector as staff sought pay rises to offset the soaring cost of living.

The walkouts have strained the already stretched health service still struggling to recover from backlogs created by the coronavirus pandemic. Nurses, ambulance crews and senior doctors have reached pay deals with the government, but the union representing junior doctors has held out, and negotiations have stalled. The government says it won’t hold further talks unless doctors call off the strike, while the union says it won’t negotiate unless it receives a credible pay offer.

The notion that we are hellbent on calling strikes and all we want to do is call strikes is not what we want, said Dr. Vivek Trivedi, co-chair of the British Medical Association’s Junior Doctors Committee. What we want is to negotiate an offer we can put to our members and for our members to accept it.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

National Medical Commission’s regulations clamp down on pharma-doctors nexus

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The National Medical Commission’s new regulations have barred doctors any seminar, workshop or conference which involves direct or indirect sponsorships from pharmaceutical companies or the allied health sector.

The new rules, under Section 35 of the new professional conduct regulations, also do not permit doctors and families from taking any consultancy fee or honorariums from pharma or medical device companies, commercial health establishments or corporate hospitals under any pretext.

In case of violations, the doctor’s licence can be cancelled for three months.

The new regulations aim to close any loopholes that emerged after the Medical Council of India banned all gifts, travel facilities or hospitality offered to doctors.

For example, to ensure paid travel, companies were representing doctors as faculty and not delegates. Companies have also been paying doctors under consultancy fees or honorarium for taking lectures, workshops and hospitals have been paying doctors under ‘facilitation fees’. Doctors can now only receive money or benefits as employees of the companies.

Remember these steps come in conjunction with the conditions that doctors can prescribe only the generic name of medicines to patients.

While the aim of the new NMC regulations it seems is to ensure there is no nexus between doctors and pharma companies, doctors are unhappy with the recent clamp down.

For example, doctors believe there has to be standardised quality of drugs before they can prescribe generic medicines. Similarly, there needs to be more clarity on what disclosures need to be made by doctors when it comes relationships with companies or hospitals. And all this with less severe penalties.

Hence, going forward, one will need to watch whether these regulations under the NMC will be watered down as the conditions put forth by the MCI a few years ago were after protest from doctors.

Also Read: ICMR launches two studies to investigate rising deaths due to heart attacks among youth post COVID-19

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Foreign medical graduates struggling to get registered in India over internship rule confusion

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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“NMC is not responding… I don’t know if should I do one more year of internship or I will get my registration with just one-year of internship. It’s all very stressful,” said 25-year-old Vishwajeet Sharma who got his degree in medicine from Xiamen Medical University China in 2021.

Sharma is among many foreign medical graduates (FMGs) who completed their medicine degree in 2020 and 2021, cleared the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam and completed the one-year mandatory internship in India to practise medicine in India but have yet not received their registration.

For months, over 3,000 FMGs have been in a frustrating ordeal. These students, who completed their medical courses abroad and underwent internships in India, have been striving to obtain their registrations. Notably, without these registrations from their respective state medical councils, these medical graduates are unable to practice medicine or pursue higher degree courses in India.

Also read: Ukraine-returned medical students seek accommodation in Indian colleges

What’s the issue all about?

In simpler terms, for a foreign medical graduate who is a citizen of India or are an Overseas Citizen of India (OCI) cardholder and wants to pursue medicine in India they need to clear the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination and undergo a one-year internship. After this they get the registration from their respective state medical councils. This was applicable when the graduates finished their course by physically being present in the respective college.

Now, the National Medical Council in a new circular issued on July 28, 2022, stated that students who were forced to return to India due to COVID-19 and\ the Russia-Ukraine war, were granted a special provision. These students, upon completing their studies and receiving the certificate of course completion by June 30, 2022, would be allowed to appear in the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) and have to do a two-year internship

“Once they pass the FMG examination, these foreign medical graduates are required to undergo a compulsory rotating medical internship (CRMI) for two years. This internship aims to compensate for the clinical training they missed during their undergraduate course abroad and familiarise them with the practice of medicine in India,” the notification stated.

The NMC further clarified that foreign medical graduates would be eligible for permanent registration only after successfully completing the two-year CRMI. However, it emphasised that this relaxation was a one-time measure and should not be considered as a precedent for the future.

Despite these guidelines, foreign medical graduates are facing hurdles in obtaining permanent registration as state medical councils are enforcing the NMC’s July 2022 notification retroactively.

“Now there are students who came back to India in 2020 and cleared the FMGE exam in 2021 (from the 2015 and 2016 batch). They were already in their one-year of mandatory internship when this new circular was released. So the issue is that (while) some states like Gujarat, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka, Bihar, Assam, and Orissa have allowed the foreign medical graduates who passed in 2021 with one-year internship permanent registration, states like Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Jammu and Kashmir and Delhi have not done so. Therefore, there is a lot of disparity which is leading to delays in the career path of these students,” said Sarvesh Pandey, General Secretary of the Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA).

In response to this ongoing crisis,  FORDA has written to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, urging him to address the disparities in the way different state medical councils are handling the issue of permanent registration for FMGs after their internships.

“Some of my friends who are from my batch have gotten their registration and are also pursuing their PG now but I couldn’t sit for the PG exam as I did not have my registration. How is this fair,” an FMG wondered on the condition of anonymity.

Issues with the two-year internship row 

Since the notification was released in 2022, FMGs have been protesting against the two-year internship rule.

“The whole world was studying online because of COVID-19. It’s not my fault that the Russia-Ukraine war happened, right? If a student who pursued medicine in India has to undergo one-year of internship then why are we asked to do two years of internship? What more that we can learn in two years?” said Anmol Jaiswal, another FMG. 

Echoing that sentiment, Pandey added: “In an internship, most candidates are collecting blood samples and other reports. You don’t need two years of internship to perfect that kind of work,”

The FMGE is a qualifying examination conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE) in India. Indian students who completed their MBBS degrees in countries such as Russia, China, the Philippines, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and other foreign nations must successfully clear the FMGE to obtain a licence to practise medicine in India.

(Image source: PTI)

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Can’t treat Allopathy, Ayurveda doctors at par, says SC, sets aside Gujarat HC order

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Supreme Court on Wednesday set aside a Gujarat High Court order, which had held that Ayurveda practitioners working in government hospitals should be treated at par with allopathy doctors and entitled to equal pay.

The apex court was hearing a batch of appeals challenging a 2012 Gujarat High Court order which had held that Ayurveda practitioners are entitled to be treated at par with doctors with MBBS degrees.

While recognising the importance of Ayurveda practitioners and the need to promote alternative or indigenous systems of medicine, the top court said that it cannot be oblivious of the fact that both categories of doctors are certainly not performing equal work to be entitled to equal pay.

A bench of Justice V Ramasubramanian and Justice Pankaj Mithal said allopathy doctors are required to perform emergency duties and provide trauma care.

”Nature of the science that they practise and with the advancement of science and modern medical technology, the emergency duty that allopathy doctors are capable of performing and the trauma care that they are capable of providing cannot be performed by Ayurveda doctors,” it said.

The apex court said it is also not possible for Ayurveda practitioners to assist surgeons performing complicated surgeries while doctors with MBBS degrees can perform the task.

”We shall not be understood to mean as though one system of medicine is superior to the other. It is not our mandate nor within our competence to assess the relative merits of these two systems of medical sciences. As a matter of fact, we are conscious that the history of Ayurveda dates back to several centuries.

”We have no doubt that every alternative system of medicine may have its pride of place in history. But today, the practitioners of indigenous systems of medicine do not perform complicated surgical operations. A study of Ayurveda does not authorise them to perform these surgeries. Similarly, a post-mortem or autopsy is not carried out by/in the presence of Ayurveda doctors,” it said.

The apex court said it is common knowledge that during out-patient days in general hospitals in cities or towns, doctors with MBBS degrees are made to attend to hundreds of patients, which is not the case for Ayurveda practitioners.

”Therefore, even while recognising the importance of Ayurveda doctors and the need to promote alternative/indigenous systems of medicine, we cannot be oblivious of the fact that both categories of doctors are certainly not performing equal work to be entitled to equal pay,” it said.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

These government jobs for MBBS degree holders are up for grabs

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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From the Steel Authority of India (SAIL) to Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme, a host of government organisations are hiring those with an MBBS degree to fill a number of vacancies at different levels.

Steel Authority of India 

The Steel Authority of India (SAIL) is looking for five medical officers. Candidates between the ages of 18 years and 44 years can apply. The selection will be made on the grounds of written tests, and interviews. Please note that the last date to submit the application is December 17, 2022. For further details, check out the notification.

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How to apply?

Step 1. Visit the department’s official website or click here – sail.co.in.

Step 2. Once you tap on the medical officer recruitment option, an application form will open up.

Step 3  Fill in the required details. Cross-check your form and the documents.

Step 4. Pay the fees and submit the form.

Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme

Ex-Servicemen Contributory Health Scheme was launched by the central government to provide allopathic and AYUSH Medicare to ex-servicemen pensioners and their dependents. There are 55 vacancies for the post of pharmacists and medical officers, in this health scheme. The walk-in applications will close by November 19. And, the selection process for these vacancies will be based on interviews. All the eligible aspirants can check the ECHS notification here.

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How to apply?

No online application will be accepted. Collect the application form from the nearest station headquarters or ECHS Polyclinic.

On the interview date, candidates must visit headquarters in Telangana and Andhra Sub Area, Secunderabad.

They need to carry all the original certificates, mark sheets, and two passport-size photographs along with work experience and identity proof.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

National Doctors’ Day 2022: Messages and quotes to share with your doctor

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Doctors are essential parts of our lives and a boon to humanity. It is often said that doctors are next to God as they are the only ones on the earth who can save the lives of people. Hence, to acknowledge their efforts, National Doctor’s Day is celebrated every year on July 1 in India. The day reminds people about the contributions and sacrifices made by doctors and healthcare workers, and it also commemorates the iconic physician Dr Bidhan Chandra Roy for his contribution to the medical field.

This year, National Doctor’s Day will be celebrated under the theme “Family Doctors on the Front Line”. The theme is chosen to acknowledge the fearless work of doctors on the front line during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here are some special messages and quotes to share with your doctor to pay him gratitude on National Doctors’ Day.

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1. On this occasion of Doctors’ Day, I express my gratitude to you for always being there for us, for serving us with happiness and for treating our problems. Happy Doctors’ Day!

2. “Medicines cure diseases, but only doctors can cure patients.” — Carl Jung

Happy Doctors’ Day!

3. Happy Doctors’ Day to the ones who always put their patients first and do their best to gift them health.

4. Doctors are the boon directly sent from God for us. Salute to the heroic job you do even in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. Happy Doctors’ Day.

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5. A doctor is bestowed with the eye to see and treat weakness in mankind. He is the one who can give us hope when we are in doom. Sending warm wishes to you on National Doctors’ Day 2021

6. This world has become a better and healthier place to live in with doctors bringing the joy of health and goodness to our lives. Happy Doctors’ Day!

7. I thank you for your service towards humanity. At the time of emergency, doctors are like God for the patient. Wish you a very Happy Doctors’ Day!

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Are you a social media influencer or doctor? Here’s how the new TDS rules will impact you

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Masoom Minawala is a social influencer with 1.2 million followers on Instagram. As part of her work, she receives several products from brands for promotions, but some of these stay back with her. Doctors also retain some medical samples shared by pharma firms.

These ‘gifts’ will now be taxed from July 1 under the new TDS guidelines issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT). Social media influencers are now seeking out chartered accounts to help them with the same.

Anuradha K Bhandari and Ashutosh Bhandari, who run an Instagram page, Thegoofyones, told CNBC-TV18: “Now, we will have to understand this taxation process about the 10 percent deduction when we collaborate with any small business or companies.”

Minawala told CNBC-TV18 most of the gifts are from small brands that acknowledge that their product may or may not get featured. “But with additional TDS going out of their pockets, they’ll have to rethink gifting,” Minawala said, adding they are seeking help for more clarity.

Also Read: Explained: How are freelancers, social media influencers taxed in India

What do the new rules say?

The provision introduced in the Finance Act 2022 as section 194R mandates a 10 percent tax deducted at source (TDS), exclusive of surcharge and cess, on freebies exceeding Rs 20,000 in a year that influencers and doctors receive and retain from sales promotions.

“Influencers and doctors will have to now file tax in advance if the value of freebies they receive exceeds Rs 20,000 in a year,” said Shubham Sharma, founder of law consultancy firm SRS Associates.

The guidelines provide examples of freebies where tax will be deducted under section 194R. These include incentives in form of cash, TV, car, computers (or any other gadgets), outfits, cosmetics, gold coins, jewellery, sponsored trips, free tickets to events, and medicine samples given for free to a doctor.

How will the authorities plug tax leakages?

According to Ashish Sodhani, Leader, International Tax Advisory & Litigation at law firm Nishith Desai Associates, any such expenditure incurred by a company would have to be accounted for in their books.

“This would assist the tax authorities in determining what was shared,” Sodhani told CNBC-TV18. “Whether they (influencers/doctors) may be raided or not is a subjective question and may depend on other factors. However, scrutiny based on information received from the companies providing the benefits can definitely be part of the process.”

As per Sodhani, a process with proper documentation might be implemented between the companies and doctors/influencers, which would act as proof that the gits and benefits were retained or not.

Will companies reporting such gifts might come under more scrutiny? Sodhani said: “Section 194R was included in the Income Tax Act due to non-reporting of transactions taxable under Section 28(iv). Therefore, reporting would only be a beneficial step for the companies to reduce the scrutiny that would otherwise take place.”

What is in it for social media influencers?

According to the CBDT, whether the product given for promotion is beneficial or perquisite will depend upon the facts of the case. “In case of benefit or prerequisite being a product is a car, mobile, outfit, cosmetics, etc., and if the product is returned after using for the purpose of rendering service, then it will not be treated as a benefit or prerequisite,” CBDT said.

In influencer marketing, a barter system through which brands offer free samples or gifts to influencers in return for a post on social media is very common. According to Sharma, these gifts, because of negligible paperwork, are mostly not mentioned by influencers and also doctors when they file income tax returns.

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“The barter system is an easy method for brands to save (on marketing costs) and for small creators to grow. Technically, an influencer is providing a service to the brand. This counts as a transaction and, hence, new provisions have been added,” Sharma said.

The Bhandaris believe that because of a lack of clarity around the subject budding influencers might “shy away from barter collaborations”. Minawala, too, voiced similar concerns.

Meanwhile, Swati Sharma, founder of consultancy firm F Square Media, says the move will be beneficial for influences in the long run. “Barter system is a flawed concept and a lot of freebies go to waste. Influencers will now think twice before indulging in barter and can even demand the payment that they deserve for their work from brands,” she said.

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What do the new rules mean for doctors?

For doctors, CBDT clarified that section 194R would be applicable to the distribution of free samples to a hospital when doctors receive free samples while being employed there. Such samples can be considered taxable perquisites for employees by the hospital, and thus tax can be deducted under Section 192. In such a case, the threshold of Rs 20,000 must be viewed in relation to the hospital, as per the norms.

“To the extent that certain items are provided to doctors in compliance with the Medical Council of India’s code of ethics and the recent Apex Laboratories ruling, the company would take a deduction for the same in its books, which would be the basis for the CBDT to determine what has been shared with the doctors,” Sodhani said.

In the case of items other than these, the same cannot be taken as a deduction and CBDT might not be able to prima facie ascertain what has been shared, according to Sodhani.

He explained that a stricter code of ethics is currently being deliberated by the National Medical Commission, and a draft has already been published. “So, companies may need to relook at what is permissible under the revised code of ethics read with the Apex Laboratories ruling, in order to be able to avail of deductions in its books,” Sodhani said.

As these new rules kick in from July 1 despite the grey areas, influencers and doctors will need to be careful before accepting any free gifts and will need to report appropriately in case they don’t want to turn into tax evaders.

Also Read:  Freebies to doctors to boost medicine sales prohibited by law, firms can’t claim IT deduction: Supreme Court

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Freebies to doctors to boost medicine sales prohibited by law, firms can’t claim IT deduction: Supreme Court

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Supreme Court Tuesday held that granting freebies to doctors by pharmaceutical companies to boost sales of medicines is “clearly prohibited by law and dismissed a plea of a firm seeking deduction under the Income Tax Act on account of giving incentives to medical practitioners.

The top court termed as a matter of great public importance and concern the manipulation of doctors’ prescriptions in lieu of freebies offered to them by pharmaceutical companies, ranging from gifts such as gold coins, fridges, and LCD TVs to funding international trips for vacations or to attend medical conferences.

A bench comprising justices U U Lalit and S Ravindra Bhat dismissed the appeal of M/s Apex Laboratories Pvt. Ltd against the order of the high court and in the verdict, it also dealt with a tricky legal issue where tax deduction on account of granting freebies to doctors was claimed saying though medical practitioners are restrained under the regulations from accepting such gifts, it was not an offence under any law and hence, companies are entitled to the tax benefit.

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Analysing the law and regulations concerned, the verdict, penned by Justice Bhat, said, pharmaceutical companies’ gifting freebies to doctors, etc. is clearly prohibited by law’, and not allowed to be claimed as a deduction under Section 37(1). Doing so would wholly undermine public policy. The well-established principle of interpretation of taxing statutes that they need to be interpreted strictly cannot sustain when it results in an absurdity contrary to the intentions of Parliament.

Deprecating the practice of giving freebies, the bench said medical practitioners have a quasi-fiduciary relationship with their patients and their prescriptions are considered the final word on the medication to be availed by the patient, even if the cost of such medication is unaffordable or barely within the economic reach of the patient such is the level of the trust reposed in doctors. These freebies are technically not free’ the cost of supplying such freebies is usually factored into the drug, driving prices up, thus creating a perpetual publicly injurious cycle. The threat of prescribing medication that is significantly marked up, over effective generic counterparts …, it said and referred to reports on the issue.

The firm, in its appeal, said the amended 2002 Regulations for doctors did not apply to pharmaceutical companies. While medical practitioners were expressly prohibited from accepting freebies, no corresponding prohibition in the form of any binding norm was imposed on the pharmaceutical companies gifting them, and in the absence of any express prohibition by law, it could not be denied the benefit of seeking exclusion of the expenditure incurred on supply of such freebies under Section 37(1) of the IT Act.

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Under the provision, any expenditure, such as payment of hapta’, freebies, donations, protection, or extortion money will not be allowed as a deduction. This court is of the opinion that such a narrow interpretation of Explanation 1 to Section 37(1) defeats the purpose for which it was inserted, i.e., to disallow an assessee from claiming a tax benefit for its participation in an illegal activity, the judgement said.

It is also a settled principle of law that no court will lend its aid to a party that roots its cause of action in an immoral or illegal act meaning that none should be allowed to profit from any wrongdoing coupled with the fact that statutory regimes should be coherent and not self-defeating, it said. Doctors and pharmacists being complementary and supplementary to each other in the medical profession, a comprehensive view must be adopted to regulate their conduct in view of the contemporary statutory regimes and regulations.

Therefore, denial of the tax benefit cannot be construed as penalizing the assessee pharmaceutical company. Only its participation in what is plainly an action prohibited by law precludes the assessee from claiming it as a deductible expenditure, it said.

In the present case, the incentives given by the company had a direct result of exposing the recipients to the odium of sanctions, leading to a ban on their practice of medicine, it said. In pursuance of the IT circular, a notice was issued to the company asking as to why the expenditure of around Rs 4.7 crore was incurred towards gifting freebies such as hospitality, conference fees, gold coins, LCD TVs, fridges, laptops, etc. to medical practitioners for creating awareness about the health supplement Zincovit’ and why it should not be added back to the total income of the company.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow

Book Excerpt: The Nation’s Homeopath

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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If doctors today practised the way we did fifty years ago, we wouldn’t need Seema Aunty from the Netflix show Indian Matchmaking. Back then, a doctor was a healer, family friend and even a matchmaker. Scores of families would ask ‘the good doctor’ to look for a suitable boy or girl for their eligible children. I have had such requests myself and was happy to help. The very existence of the phrase ‘the good doctor’ was indicative of the physician’s place in society—a person of decency who people consulted not just for health, but also family matters. A real mensch, as the Jews say. Those days, a patient was born at home and died at home. Today, both birth and death take place in a hospital, with more strangers than family members for company. In most cases today, the doctor is no longer a friend, no longer an unassuming God, but a brusque professional who merely thinks he is God. How did we get here?

An exploding population, a faster pace of life, consumerism, mobile phones and nuclear families have ensured that doctors are kept on their toes. When everyone has more money to make, another appointment to reach, when the phone is always buzzing, which doctor will sit down for a cup of tea and discuss cricket and alliances? No, she or he is Usain Bolt in a white coat. Always running. Why blame him or her either? Many medical colleges have ceased being noble, service-oriented organisations and have become financial plunderers, often run by politicians. Of the nearly 2600 medical colleges in the world, the largest number are in India (479). Fees amount to around one million a year, which means five million for the entire course.

A loan of that amount necessitates an equated monthly instalment (EMI) payback of approximately Rs 60,000 per month. No wonder medical students are stuck in a debt trap for years, and feel compelled to quickly recover costs. Taking regional and global headwinds into consideration, what does the present and future hold for Indian healthcare? What are the key things that are going to play a big role in the years to come? As a homeopath, I’m happy to say that alternative medicine is here to stay. People are better informed these days. They are fitness conscious, and have a healthy wariness towards mainstream drugs, given their chemical content and side effects. People are therefore more inclined to give alternative medicine a chance. Alternative medicine will not cure bullet wounds, but combined with activities such as yoga, meditation and exercise, it can help people manage many ailments without taking harmful medicines. Not for the first time, I will also mention the government’s Ayush initiative, which will definitely make more people consider alternative medicine, including homeopathy. This brings us to one of the drivers of the alternative medicine movement—mental health, which is going to be a key area in medicine.

Earlier, health meant physical health, where you played football, showered and sang the Lifebuoy soap ditty: ‘Tandurusti ki raksha karta hai Lifebuoy …’ Now there is a shift and people have realized health also means being emotionally strong. According to the WHO, India is the world’s most depressed country, with around fifty million people suffering from depression. Market Research Future, a data analytics firm, states that India holds a 20 per cent market share in the Asia-Pacific depressionscreening market, a market that is globally expected to be worth $5,177.8 million by 2023. Statistics like these, coupled with an increasing number of celebrities raising awareness about mental health, are clear signs that mental health is going to be a big part of India’s medico-wellness landscape. Tele medicine is another game changer. If you can talk to a doctor from the comfort and privacy of your home, why would you go through the trouble of taking the offline route unless absolutely required? M-health also reduces the pressure on the doctor’s infrastructure.

From the doctor’s point of view, AI and wearables will lead to advanced and quicker treatments. A lot of AI is already being used by hospitals for duties ranging from scheduling appointments, digitization of medical records and reminder calls for follow-up. In various parts of the world robots are assisting in surgeries, intelligent prostheses are being used by the differently abled or wounded, and AI is also being used for many other tasks. This leaves doctors and their support staff free to concentrate on core matters. People’s tendency to go online for a diagnosis the moment they have certain symptoms is one more sign of the times that isn’t going to go away. Moments after leaving the doctor’s clinic, and after being told by him or her to avoid checking things with Dr Google, people do exactly that. Of all the queries Google receives in a day, an estimated 7 per cent are health related, according to Google Health Vice President David Feinberg.

Excerpted with permission from “The Nation’s Homeopath” by Dr Mukesh Batra, published by HarperCollins Publishers India. Price 699/-.

Elon Musk forms several ‘X Holdings’ companies to fund potential Twitter buyout

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Thursday’s filing dispelled some doubts, though Musk still has work to do. He and his advisers will spend the coming days vetting potential investors for the equity portion of his offer, according to people familiar with the matter

KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow