India: Passengers & patients pay extra at rly canteen and pvt clinic

Kanpur: Just as there is a difference in the rate at the ordinary canteen and the air-conditioned canteen at the platform no 1 of the Central railway station here, so as the difference in doctors' fee is seen at their private clinic existing in the same market at Jajmau here.

Both the doctors hold the same degree but show no mercy to the patients by reducing their respective consulting charges. One doctor normally prescribes medicines equivalent to his fee while another doctor tries to make the patients spend more money than his fee.

If the disparity persists at the platform the private medical practitioners also follow the same theory. It genuinely indicates the profit attitude. If the canteen wallahs fleece the passengers, the doctors are not lagging behind in playing unkind method of extracting enough fee and prescribing costly medicines, as the disturbed patients point out.

The doctors professionally take an oath by writing one or two short letters like Rx but appear to be relaxed on the contents. Gone are the days when the doctors used to prescribe cheaper medicines. They never were found to be surrounded by the medical representatives. One doctor during the talk accepted that the gifts from them come in abundance. Sometimes the medical representative outnumbers the patients at the private clinics. The patients are made to wait when the medical representatives are sitting in the doctor's cabin as was seen in this case. But one patient's attendant was courageous enough to enter the cabin for enquiring something.