"Quack doctors" are a living source of evil.
In the article 'Quackdown' by The Economist, the writer reports on how India's quack doctors have severely negated the genuine health care efforts there.
According to the article, in Delhi alone there are around 40,000 quacks.
Furthermore, 'In the teeming slums where up to a third of the capital's population of 14m live, requests for directions to a doctor will lead to one of many dingy clinic-shacks, where a man who looks more prosperous than his neighbours plies his trade with a stethoscope, a thermometer and a big pile of pills.
" As a result, Sandeep Guleria, a professor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, says quacks have helped cause the high levels of drug resistance in India.
Is this really the kind of dubious and unprofessional medical treatment that we have to endure? Critics may easily put the blame on the existing India government's feeble attempts in improving local public healthcare, but when there are only 60 doctors available for every 100,000 people in India, is it really fair to put the government as the only scapegoat? When one person does nothing else but just put the blame on others, it is not an act of self-righteous; in fact it only shows the person is a hypocrite himself.
In this way, it seems almost certain that quack doctors should not exist at all But...
the world now needs their help.
The Grand Slam Ask yourself: If you had a choice, would you want to be a fake doctor for the rest of your lives? I am sure the same thinking goes through the minds of every quack doctor.
The truth is everyone harbors hope for a decent and stable life, but often circumstances do not permit him or her to have the choice they want.
In many cases, these people became quacks so that they can earn and support their families.
If they had sufficient training, better family background or were slightly more affluent, would they really want to be a quack? But...
things can always change for the better.
None of us can change our family background, but that should not deter us from having a meaningful and better life.
The world needs a concerted effort from all levels of society to abolish the practice of quack doctors.
In return, we replace it with the introduction of accredited health technicians (HTs).
The most promising aspect of this project is that any ordinary individual, regardless of race, religion or gender can be put through months of intensive medical training and then emerge as a HT.
These people will then be rotated regularly on shifts to travel to areas where medical coverage has likely been neglected.
Most importantly, they are able to administer primary medical aid to the people there without the need of a supervising doctor.
Quacks can save lives From a technical view, quacks are extremely useful.
First, they often have a good and through in-depth understanding of the common illnesses the people faced in their province or country.
This means if we know what they know, we can concentrate our efforts on fixing these common diseases to prevent them from snowballing into a possible epidemic scenario.
Second, the existing quacks are often already medically trained; all they just need is a refresher course to further boost their proficiency and then they can serve as teachers for the trainees.
Hence, the amount of money needed to pump into medical training is not as much as it seems, because trainers do not need to teach beginners first aid right from the start.
Third, quacks already have a certain group of regular patients.
If we were to recruit new HTs and sent them to these areas, the patients there may not be accustomed to these new faces and shun them instead.
If these quacks can join us, these patients will have more faith in this project and thus psychological inertia is reduced.
As a result, the workload of convincing patients to seek early medical care is reduced greatly.
Due to the large number of quack doctors, they can also act as the real doctors' eyes and ears in reaching more patients over a vast geographical area.
There are more points that could support the fact that quacks are useful, but these three reasons should be more than adequate to validate the truth.
Technical Difficulties Geographical boundaries and distances can now be narrowed down using existing technology.
For instance, Riders For Health, an international non-government organization, provides motorcycles for health care workers in Africa.
This is to ensure that medical treatment is uninterrupted by transportation delays.
The medical workers are issued motorcycles for travel purposes, and also given training on operating and maintaining motorcycles.
As a result, Riders now currently reaches 10.
8 million people and has helped increase the proportion of fully immunised infants in The Gambia from 62% to 73%.
Of course, there are still details that need to be ironed out.
For instance, one thing must be clear: HTs are not equal to doctors.
They do not receive the same level of professional training, nor do they have the type of surgical experience as compared to the later.
Thus, the existing batches of doctors are still irreplaceable; it's just that now they have more working hands and ears.
Most importantly, such a project has never been attempted before, so no one knows whether will it work or not.
However, the public and the quacks also first need to change their existing mindsets.
On one hand, the public needs to remove its typical cynical and distrustful perceptive of these quacks-turned-good; after all if you don't trust them, how can they work for you? On the other hand, the quacks should not feel like they are being slighted; everyone has their own past, and so long they do their job well they will not be discriminated.
Is this project really worth it? Even if the project can only save one life in the end, it is still a success.
Why? Because life is priceless, life is precious, and most importantly, life is - above all.
"Let me win; if not, let me die trying.
" Anonymous
In the article 'Quackdown' by The Economist, the writer reports on how India's quack doctors have severely negated the genuine health care efforts there.
According to the article, in Delhi alone there are around 40,000 quacks.
Furthermore, 'In the teeming slums where up to a third of the capital's population of 14m live, requests for directions to a doctor will lead to one of many dingy clinic-shacks, where a man who looks more prosperous than his neighbours plies his trade with a stethoscope, a thermometer and a big pile of pills.
" As a result, Sandeep Guleria, a professor at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi, says quacks have helped cause the high levels of drug resistance in India.
Is this really the kind of dubious and unprofessional medical treatment that we have to endure? Critics may easily put the blame on the existing India government's feeble attempts in improving local public healthcare, but when there are only 60 doctors available for every 100,000 people in India, is it really fair to put the government as the only scapegoat? When one person does nothing else but just put the blame on others, it is not an act of self-righteous; in fact it only shows the person is a hypocrite himself.
In this way, it seems almost certain that quack doctors should not exist at all But...
the world now needs their help.
The Grand Slam Ask yourself: If you had a choice, would you want to be a fake doctor for the rest of your lives? I am sure the same thinking goes through the minds of every quack doctor.
The truth is everyone harbors hope for a decent and stable life, but often circumstances do not permit him or her to have the choice they want.
In many cases, these people became quacks so that they can earn and support their families.
If they had sufficient training, better family background or were slightly more affluent, would they really want to be a quack? But...
things can always change for the better.
None of us can change our family background, but that should not deter us from having a meaningful and better life.
The world needs a concerted effort from all levels of society to abolish the practice of quack doctors.
In return, we replace it with the introduction of accredited health technicians (HTs).
The most promising aspect of this project is that any ordinary individual, regardless of race, religion or gender can be put through months of intensive medical training and then emerge as a HT.
These people will then be rotated regularly on shifts to travel to areas where medical coverage has likely been neglected.
Most importantly, they are able to administer primary medical aid to the people there without the need of a supervising doctor.
Quacks can save lives From a technical view, quacks are extremely useful.
First, they often have a good and through in-depth understanding of the common illnesses the people faced in their province or country.
This means if we know what they know, we can concentrate our efforts on fixing these common diseases to prevent them from snowballing into a possible epidemic scenario.
Second, the existing quacks are often already medically trained; all they just need is a refresher course to further boost their proficiency and then they can serve as teachers for the trainees.
Hence, the amount of money needed to pump into medical training is not as much as it seems, because trainers do not need to teach beginners first aid right from the start.
Third, quacks already have a certain group of regular patients.
If we were to recruit new HTs and sent them to these areas, the patients there may not be accustomed to these new faces and shun them instead.
If these quacks can join us, these patients will have more faith in this project and thus psychological inertia is reduced.
As a result, the workload of convincing patients to seek early medical care is reduced greatly.
Due to the large number of quack doctors, they can also act as the real doctors' eyes and ears in reaching more patients over a vast geographical area.
There are more points that could support the fact that quacks are useful, but these three reasons should be more than adequate to validate the truth.
Technical Difficulties Geographical boundaries and distances can now be narrowed down using existing technology.
For instance, Riders For Health, an international non-government organization, provides motorcycles for health care workers in Africa.
This is to ensure that medical treatment is uninterrupted by transportation delays.
The medical workers are issued motorcycles for travel purposes, and also given training on operating and maintaining motorcycles.
As a result, Riders now currently reaches 10.
8 million people and has helped increase the proportion of fully immunised infants in The Gambia from 62% to 73%.
Of course, there are still details that need to be ironed out.
For instance, one thing must be clear: HTs are not equal to doctors.
They do not receive the same level of professional training, nor do they have the type of surgical experience as compared to the later.
Thus, the existing batches of doctors are still irreplaceable; it's just that now they have more working hands and ears.
Most importantly, such a project has never been attempted before, so no one knows whether will it work or not.
However, the public and the quacks also first need to change their existing mindsets.
On one hand, the public needs to remove its typical cynical and distrustful perceptive of these quacks-turned-good; after all if you don't trust them, how can they work for you? On the other hand, the quacks should not feel like they are being slighted; everyone has their own past, and so long they do their job well they will not be discriminated.
Is this project really worth it? Even if the project can only save one life in the end, it is still a success.
Why? Because life is priceless, life is precious, and most importantly, life is - above all.
"Let me win; if not, let me die trying.
" Anonymous
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