Gandhi's Seven Deadly Sins in Healthcare
How does one begin to write a piece in a week which culminated in a rare conflence of events which combined coincidentally and also linked together to create some thoughts. On October 2, 2025 the festival of Dushera coincided with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri. Two days later on October 4, 2025 at my work place we celebrated the hospitals' 21st bithday.
The decline in overall standards of morality is so precipitous and rapid that it is becoming incresing ly difficult to recognize this great fall. The rapidity of this free fall has created situations in which compromises on all fronts has been normalised. Is there a way out and what should we do to stem the tide?
Gandhi wrote a book Hind Swaraj the contents of which seem nonsensical and illogical today. He condemned parliamentary democracy, Railways, mass production in factories, modern education, doctors and lawyers. But with all the noble intentions everything he said is correct as in every endeavour one or the other of the deadly sins creep in. Politics without principles has made parliamentary democracy and the people's mandate s a complete sham. Railways with it's record of accidents and exploitative nature is an example of science without humanity. Mass factory production has made the factory owners commit the sin of getting wealth without work. Rote utilitarian education symbolizes the sin of getting knowledge without developing characrer. As far as doctors and lawyers are concerned they commit the sin of conducting business without ethics.
The life of Lal Bahadur Shastri was based on integrity and simplicity taken to an absurd level. The moral standards upheld by him would be better than the most honest leader in public in say 2025. The examples in his life stand testimony to the level of integrity of Shastri who resigned owning moral responsibility for Rail accidents during his tenure as Minister. He had no personal wealth and when he died he had an unpaid loan for a car he had purchased. His committment to the farmer and the soldier showed the humility of a leader who did not hog the lime light to project himself but put the humble farmer and soldier in front. He was a patient listener and a leader who lead from the front yet kept himself in the background.
Also on the very same day was celebrated Dusshera the victory of good over evil. The symbolism of Ram Rajya burning effigies remained symbolic and with rain continuing to come in this month even managing to physically burn Ravana became a tough ask.
However, we live in times where in every field of endeavour ethics has taken a back seat. As far as healthcare is concerned the decline is precipitous. It began a while ago and what started as an exchange of gifts during festivals became cut practice. This meant that doctors referred to each other for commercial gain and performed diagnostic tests and received monetory benefits to send work to the highest bidder.Many persons allude to one doctor a famous ENT surgeon who received many awards and has a hospital to his name to be the original sin. The second blow came when because of this commercialization doctors came under the ambit of the consumer protection act and a doctor patient relationship became a transactional service the commodity of trust went out of the ambit of healthcare. The third development came with the pharmaceutical companies, medical devices and instrument companies who made doctors the tools of fake research and incentives were given to doctors to precribe or endorse their products. Then came the commercialization of Medical education with capitation fee colleges which destroyed everything and created doctors who became copiers. They overinvestigated patients and the art of history taking and clinical examination died to create a bunch of hyposkiliacs. The book Healers or Predators touches this subject in detail.
Pleasure without Conscience (Parties, foreign trips, Sponsored conerences)
Science without Humanity (Fake research on behalf of pharma and Medical implant companies)
Knowledge without Character (No touch hyposkiliac doctors)
Politics without Principle (politicalisation of medical regulatory bodies)
Commerce without Morality (Corporate hospitals setting targets for doctors to perform unindicated surgeries and procedures).
Worship without Sacrifice (Doctors whose ego does not permit them to admit the existence of the divine Self.
The challenge is to burn the sins and create victory for the good over evil.
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