As a physician, I am prompted to tell the public of a more serious problem: The vicious cycle of doctors just diagnosing and treating a disease with drugs and the like but not taking care to know how and why a patient got sick for preventive purposes. Knowledge of the patient as a whole person enables the physician to counsel the patient with precaution. In this vicious cycle, both doctors and patients are in a hurry to finish with the consultation, diagnosis and treatment. The fast pace of life and its complexities make people depend more on medical advances, high technology wonder drugs and/or surgery. Medical progress makes people naive and fall into a false sense of security. For example, pneumonia is a leading cause of death. Though antibiotics are available for its cure, many are dying of pneumonia and various infections worldwide due to self-medication and resistance to drugs as a result of irrational use and abuse of antibiotics and others. Is SARS an aftermath? A congressman died after a bypass operation due to uncontrolled infection. Radio commentator Rod Navarro died of pneumonia. Are they victims also of resistance to antibiotics? A 17-year-old female was prescribed Fabahistin to relieve her allergy. However, after frequent intake, she almost suffered an anaphylactic shock.
Medical progress is not a guarantee for wellness and longevity. Human progress is – when people are able to maintain health, prevent disease and are self-reliant when it comes to natural and basic health care. Hence, physicians must emphasize basic health care, more than just prescribing drugs so fast in their medical practice.
These short cuts, and dehumanizing practices by many physicians have led to untold misery, disability, and untimely death of patients. For example, a patient who took an Alaxan tablet and drank a bottle of beer before bedtime died in his sleep. Alcohol and Alaxan do not mix. A patient, who was suffering from flu and taking an antibiotic and anti-cold tablet, continued to go to work and had a vehicular accident. A 50-year-old woman – obese and hypertensive, and regularly took the cardiologist’s prescribed drugs – had a stroke after jogging and became disabled. Were they advised not to take Alaxan with liquor, to rest while sick and get proper diet and proper exercise? Counseling with precaution and reassurance is as important as the drugs for the cure and safety of patients. Voluntary follow-up by doctors to find out whether their patients are doing well, cured or not, is important. Patients usually do not go back to their doctors to avoid hassles and expenses. If the patient is not cured, he/she goes to another doctor or hospital. Sometimes, the patient dies.
Senator Juan Flavier says that physicians are not only fighting against diseases but also the ignorance that aggravates or causes the diseases.
Dr. Roberto W. Higgins, president of the World Organization of Doctors, in his message at the 1999 Annual Convention of the Philippine Academy of Family Physicians, said that the next major advances in medicine will be the education of people to assume responsibility for their own health as regards lifestyle and basic health care. The physician is a better educator and in a position to explore new horizons in health care. Senator Flavier’s and Dr. Higgins’ great ideas based on their own experiences should be emphasized in medical schools, and after the physicians are licensed to practice, they must take full responsibility.