The headline, which sounds like an oxymoron, has a reason for being. Some data goes first. The medical career is one of the longest, since 5 years are required in a Faculty, plus a full year of Internship in a Hospital and then another full year of “Social Service”, generally in some small town and more or less remote. In total it is 7 years. And if you want to do a specialty, you have to take a fairly rigorous national exam, with a high number of rejections, and then spend 4 or 5 years in a Medical Center with strenuous hours. If you have time and age left over, you can do a subspecialty, which adds 2 or 3 more years to your career.
After all that time, the specialist doctor comes out not very young, he will be around 30 years old or more and he will just start his professional work, perhaps within a hospital system or he will try to break through in the competitive private level. The State health systems, IMSS, ISSSTE, SSA allow someone who has that academic level to survive with meager salaries; but at least he’s not starving and with a bit of luck he can save up for a compact car and get a loan for a home that’s barely above affordable housing.
In the private environment, things are different, although most doctors do not easily acquire the spirit of a merchant, there are a good number of them who manage to develop, in record time, a true spirit, not of a merchant, but of a of a true Phoenician.
Unfortunately, in order to reach these levels, a good part, if not all, of honesty must be abandoned along the way and the idea of seeing the patient not as a patient, but as a “client” must be accepted. This is serious, so serious that in some cases the doctor is able to push the patient or his relatives into a desperate economic situation, but at that point, they no longer care.
I know that there will be no lack of some “health professional” who tries to justify this robbery, alleging things like the time and effort it took to prepare, or his hypothetical or real competence, debatable arguments in the best of cases; but where there is no justification or excuse is when the doctor, for exclusively monetary reasons, requests studies or procedures that are not necessary for the sole reason of receiving money, via commission, from the laboratory. But the real last straw for these dealers is when they perform surgery on a patient knowing that the surgery or procedure they are performing is unnecessary.
Examples of the above can be found almost everywhere; in the Intensive Care services of some Hospitals, where terminal patients are treated, those who are going to die no matter what is done and only manage to prolong the agony at a very high cost, hospitalizations to put “vitamin serums” and when the patient is veiled patient with all the ills in the world if X surgery is not performed in a short time, almost urgently.
What to do if by bad luck we run into one of these merchant-doctors? If we detect it at the first consultation, we must ask for the bill and say goodbye, moving away from his office like a soul from the devil; but if we are already on board we must invoke our right to take a second opinion and already informed make a decision; no serious doctor can oppose that. If unfortunately we have already fallen into the hands of one of these pain dealers, there are (hypothetically) instances such as the National Medical Arbitration Commission, CONAMED, which in theory could achieve an agreement between the doctor and the patient. If not (it is the safest), please do not hesitate, hire a lawyer and sue the doctor.
It is best to prevent, ask for as many references as possible, and at all times remember that we have the right to ask for a second or third opinion. Health is irreplaceable and should not be played with.