Look before you…reduce!

Look before you…reduce!

Look before you…reduce!

Like every young surgeon, I also wanted to do as many surgeries as possible and how! So when I was put in charge of a hospital in a very young age, it was a huge responsibility! In addition to seeing the Outpatient department and doing Surgeries, I was also in charge of the management of the hospital as such acting as the Chief Operating Officer of the small hospital.

So my fixed routine was to get up by early in the morning to start our cases as our Op used to begin At 9. On a peak day, I would operate many cases and see around many pure ENT patients. In peak seasons, we used to have 70 to 80 ENT patients and do 5-6 cases almost every day! In fact having so many ENT patients is by itself a great experience but since I was just a Junior and this was my first work, I was on a fixed minimum salary and never had any share of the profits!! All I had was the independence to decide the cases, make some price adjustments and my rusty old Bike which was one of my prized (and only!) possession!

Of course this blog is not the low wages of a young doctor surgeon which is of course a universal truth! The earning path of a doctor and especially a Surgeon is a slow uphill path which takes its own sweet time!

Once a man came to me with his son who needed a surgery on his tonsils. “Your son needs tonsil surgery” is what I told the father of the kid who was having severe tonsillitis and growth impact.

The frequent infection and severe nose block had made the poor kid’s life miserable. Why they had to wait for so long was beyond my understanding but when I saw the kids father I understood. His old looking clothes, his oily hair and nicotine stained teeth gave more information than you could ask for! I was sure that he was some daily wage worker (they were our constant patients and always used to get crestfallen on listening to the rates of our procedures and medications!)

In any case I told him that we can reduce the rate by ten percent but apparently even that was a bit too much for the father to chew though he continued to chew his paan and gave me a deep sad look. Then of course I took it to myself to call my chief in the main hospital and I could reduce the price to almost half the initial cost much to my satisfaction though the expression of the man remained unchanged during the whole process!

Surgery was smooth and the kid recovered well and since the discharge took some time the parents were taking the kid just as I was getting down closing for the day.

I usually avoid speaking to patients beyond hospital hours or outside cause I have seen that it initiates an unnecessary flow of random questions to fill the awkwardness!!

Also since I come by bike rather than a car there's the matter of prestige in front of the patients which only another doctor in a corporate hospital would understand!! In fact when a patient in a corporate hospital sees you in your bike he would think this doctor is not good enough to even get a car!

But this patient was different! This kid was special and looking at him I could feel the warmth of the halo over my head over the price reduction and made some non-important comment while patting the kids head. As a final farewell to the father I gave him some money (I think it was around 100INR) and told him to take his kid by an auto to his home and not by bus.

He sheepishly looked at me and asked “if car is fine?” Perturbed I thought that this father would have kept money for going in a taxi and that would explain the bargaining! I was lost in this thought and muttered in agreement which is when I saw the father call out to another equally dirty guy standing for the family (I thought he was their relative).

Later I realized much to my amazement that this guy was apparently one of their many drivers of the ‘POOR’ looking man who actually was a big trader of the area and very rich! The driver then saluted him and took their luggage and kept it in a shiny new Innova parked just beside my old rusty bike!

The whole family then gave me big smiles showing their dirty paan stained teeth giving me a valuable lesson in life and reminding me how looks are surely deceiving!

So next time you reduce someone’s fees, make sure he is poor and not ‘LOOKS’ poor!

Of course more importantly next time, don’t judge a Book or a person by its or his cover!

And…look before you…reduce!

By: Dr. Sriram Nathan