AMCON 2002

Mumbai: Association of Medical Consultants (AMC) recently held its annual conference in Mumbai with a delightful mix of subjects ranging from listening techniques, health insurance, techiniques of improving office practice and minimising medical errors through clinical audit.

The conference was attended by more than 500 AMC members. The prominent speakers were H F Khorakiwala, chairman, Wockhardt Hospital Limited on "Quality healthcare through professional management," Dr A Garud, Nair hosital on "Minimising medical errors through clinical audit", Justice Dhananjay Chandrachud on "Dr C L Jhaveri Oration", Jagdeep Kapoor, Chairman, Samsika Marketing Consultants, on "Marketing in Medicine" and Nimish Parikh, CEO, Parikh Health, on "Managing healthcare, Indian style", by the help of medical insurance.

Dr Lalit Kapoor, medico-legal consultant, AMC, emphasised on the importance of listening for a doctor. He said that according to research, 70 to 80 per cent time in a man’s life is spent in communicating, of which six percent is devoted to reading, nine per cent in writing, while 30 per cent is spent on speaking and 40 per cent on listening. "We are taught to read, write, speak, but nobody teaches us to listen. It is assumed that listening is equivalent to hearing," he said

The conference ended with a debate on whether "I would like my child to become a doctor." After hearing the pros and cons of the medical profession from 12 participants, interestingly, 80 per cent of the members voted against their off-spring becoming a doctor. Among the various reasons cited were that the doctors no longer command demi-god like status, the medical profession is fraught with uncertainties and odd hours of working, doctors who have to struggle a lot to establish themselves and that other vocations are far more smooth-sailing than the medicine. The debate was chaired by Dr G N Bhatia, secretary, AMC.