Asked how his clinics worked, he says, “Anyone can walk into the clinics and avail of a video conferencing consultation. He/she will be given a prescription which may include necessary medications and diagnostic tests. A nominal amount is charged for the consultation and we have tie ups with diagnostic labs to provide their services at the lowest possible cost to such patients.”He adds that he follows the philosophy of not prescribing medicines or tests unless they are absolutely necessary. “Anyone suffering from a certain ailment doesn’t necessarily need dozens of medicines or tests. Taken over a long run, medicines are toxic. The idea is to give minimal medication and let nature take its course,” he says.“I’m often surprised by doctors boasting that someone has been his/her patient for 30 years or so. Why should that be necessary? What kind of a doctor are you that you can’t help the patient recover quickly?” he says.Dr Chugh also believes that a doctor’s role is not limited to treating sick patients. “A doctor has much more to offer to the society in terms of promoting wellness, healthy habits, awareness about mental health, dealing with death and disability. A doctor, having been through the tough and exhaustive grind of academics, professional practice and emotional turmoils of the diseased and their families, can be a guide to people in dealing with hardships of life and motivate them to have a new beginning every day. A doctor can teach the balance between work and life. As doctors we need to evolve into a new breed of experts who are not just care providers for the sick but rather as a life coach for them ,” he says.Incidentally, Dr Chugh’s wife, Dr Nivedita Pandey, who too earned her spurs in the US where the two of them met before marrying after several years of courtship, is a senior gastroenterologist and hepatologist in Max Hospital, Saket. “She too attends to patients from Bihar through tele-consultation, but only for a few hours. We can’t have her leave her assignment right now because someone needs to hold the fort in the financial sense of the term. We are spending all our life savings at Dr Good Deed clinics. But she will eventually join me full time,” Dr Chugh says.Indeed, the lack of funds is proving to be something of a stumbling block, but the duo is determined not to accept funds from entities that may have a vested interest in profiteering by exploiting the misery of sick people. “That is the whole problem with the healthcare industry right now, and this is what propelled us to chart out this course of action. So it will be self-sabotage for us to accept that kind of funding,” Dr Chugh says.Asked how long it would be possible to go without adequate funds, he says that as per his model for the project, it would at some point of time attain critical mass and become self-sustaining. “We do charge some money from the patients who are all, of course, outdoor patients. We believe that every possible endeavor must be made so that they don’t need to be admitted as in-patients. In big, private hospitals, they try to admit most of them just to generate revenue though even the OPD fee is high making many patients reluctant to go for follow-ups. This is a flawed healthcare model which does not have the best interests of the patients at heart,” he says.Nor is it easy for him to deal with peers and former colleagues who, he says, seem to believe that this chapter of his life and career reflect his underwhelming performance and success as a doctor. “Nothing could be further from the truth, of course, but I have now reached a point where I don’t really care or mind. What’s important is that my loved ones support me wholeheartedly,” he says.On other practical hurdles in his way like bureaucratic apathy or obstructionism, Dr Chugh says he was fortunate not to have encountered that so far. “But yes, when we tried to make them realise the urgent need to reform and augment the PHC sector, there wasn’t much of a response,” he says.Asked what motivates him, he says that nothing gives him more joy than seeing his patients feel better and on their feet as soon as possible. He cites the instance of a 45-year-old resident of east Delhi who fell down unconscious while playing badminton.“An MRI scan revealed a massive brain stroke, and I immediately operated on him. I was unsure of how it will turn out, but the very next day, he was up on his feet. The blessings I received from his wife and family later was something I will never forget. It is these kinds of things that keep me going,” Dr Chugh says.
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