Thiruvananthapuram: Will it make you a good doctor if you send back a patient in obvious pain, with a tube inserted in his urethra two months ago, saying he will be operated on after another month? I don’t want to become a good doctor in that way, says Dr CH Haris, the Head of the Urology Department at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital.             

In an interview, Dr Haris said he acted out of the conviction that ordinary patients must receive treatment, and that he had no regrets. “Let them take any action against me. The issues I raised remain, as does my request that they be resolved,” he says.

Q. Has there been any change since your revelation?
A. I openly stated that we weren’t getting the probe used in a lithoclast machine to break up stones in the urinary tract. That probe, requested over a month earlier, was made available within 24 hours of the disclosure. However, there have been no interventions on other issues. A machine used for prostate treatment recently developed a snag. There is no fund allocation for maintenance. Doctors and PG students pooled ₹50,000 to pay the company. An ESWL machine used to remove stones without surgery has remained non-functional for two years, but it remains unrepaired. Many surgeries have moved to keyhole mode for years now. Yet, open-body surgeries continue in government medical colleges. We temporarily source machines by persuading companies, on the pretext of testing their quality and with promises of including them in future tenders.

Q. Do doctors buy surgical machines and equipment on their own?
A. Doctors from several departments, including urology, do this. There's no other option. Otherwise, we’re left helpless as patients come in with tears. The Swiss-made lithoclast machine used to break urinary tract stones costs ₹27 lakh. The probe alone costs around ₹38,000. However, cheaper versions are available, with machines costing ₹50,000 and probes priced at ₹10,000. Private hospitals use these cheaper machines and probes. Doctors in medical colleges do the same, either through fundraising or from their own pockets. However, these low-cost machines do not clear all the stones. Remnants remain inside. Even so, in such dire situations, we are forced to use them just to offer some relief to patients who are in pain.

Q. The notice says you sent only two letters for the equipment.
A. Why are two letters even needed? Isn’t one letter enough? A doctor’s duty is to notify when the equipment is unavailable. That requires just one letter. If a second was required, it points to a systemic flaw. We chase after authorities for equipment and maintenance for the patients’ sake.

Q. Are doctors expected to do everything, including quality checks?
A. The biomedical wing under the Directorate of Medical Education is responsible for the machines. Yet, doctors end up doing everything, including acting as engineers for these machines. There's a bizarre rule that doctors must certify the quality of machines or the maintenance done.  But how can doctors certify the technical quality?