चिकित्सितात न पुण्यम किश्चित !

Today again, I have an incidence with my patient to share. I have made a habit that if any of my patients has gone out of town & calls me from there for any medical help, then I just ask him his problem & sms the treatment which he can show to a chemist & take the medicines to deal with the problem. This way they can handle the routine medical problems through our telephonic communication. The reason for doing this is, people tend to avoid going to an unknown doctor in unknown place. The trust level between the patient & his family doctor is such that they just get relief merely by talking to him. 1 of my patient similarly called me for assistance for his sore throat & I sent sms of treatment as usual. This was the second time he utilized my sms facility from outstation. On coming back,he straight away came to me thanking me for my help & offered me the fees for it. I just denied saying that it's my value-added service for the privileged patients. He then mentioned that ever since they have started coming to me for treatment, they have become care free about their health.He told,"हम को लगता है,जो मर्ज़ी खाओ,जहाँ चाहे जाओ;हमें कुछ नहीं होगा।और अगर कुछ हुआ भी तो डॉक्टर साब तो हैं ही!"This I think is a big complement for a professional when his customer is happy to visit him frequently & gets rest assured of the good care, no matter what may be the circumstances. Some people tell me that why don't I take charge for the telephonic consultations. The reason is obvious. Than I would get some money but lose the invaluable faith which money can't buy. The dream of a doctor should not be to make a lot of money, but it should be to win such faith & loyalty. I have seen patients in my career who are so faithful to their doctor that they literally said,"If our doctor give us any medicine & anybody tell us that it's poison, we will take that without hesitation & if we die than what better to die in hands of a doctor like ours!"This is the highest level of faith you can achieve & the journey towards that starts from taking initiatives in terms of taking extra care of patients in your daily practice like I mentioned before. The faith,the emotions, the relief, the gratefulness which you see on your patients eyes after such gestures are more rewarding than any amount of money paid.That's why it's truly said in 'अथर्व वेद' ;"चिकित्सितात न पुण्यम किश्चित"।