No confidence motion

Doctors treating Mahajan Jr have forgotten the Hippocratic oath binding all physicians. There have been missteps on the part of the hospital that have clouded its credibility.

Doctors treating Rahul Mahajan at Apollo Hospital have forgotten the Hippocratic oath that binds all physicians. There’s been a series of missteps on the part of the hospital that have clouded its credibility and raised questions about its professional and ethical conduct. When the hospital first denied finding any trace of drugs in Mahajan, it left itself open to speculation on connivance in a cover-up. By changing its stance soon after, it has dented its hard-won professional reputation. But all this pales before the conduct of the doctors who staged impromptu press conferences about the medical condition of their patient. When the doctors blithely revealed medical information (however damaging, or otherwise) about Rahul Mahajan, they broke what is the first, and most important, rule in a doctor-patient relationship: confidentiality.

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The International Code of Medical Ethics clearly states that a doctor should preserve confidentiality on all he knows about his patient, even after the patient’s death. The Code of Medical Ethics drawn out by the Indian Medical Council provides an exception, if it is a matter of public interest, and a disclosure “only in a court of law, under orders of the presiding judge”. Information on young Mahajan’s medical condition does not constitute “public interest”. While the public certainly has all the right to know of Mahajan’s misdemeanours, and journalists the right to dig out what information they can, the doctors should not have been seen as the purveyors of information on the medical condition of their patient. Such information should have been confined to his family or, after due process, the authorities. As for his alleged crimes, that is a separate issue that the police have already taken up.