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{/googleAds} Last Saturday, the chartered accountants of Agra organised a health club as part of the 65th Foundation Day of their national institute. Each  month dozens of health camps or melas are being organised to help the poor, but the health of the residents shows no signs of improvement.

'Perhaps it would require some investigative research to  establish a relationship between the growing number of health camps, conferences, national and international,  expansion of medical facilities and the declining health standards, plus the rising incidence of a whole lot of comparatively new diseases in Agra,' says eminent homeopath of the Taj city, Dr. Siddharth Mishra who in his latest book talks of 'medical-industrial complexes where doctors are gods in temples of sickness called hospitals.'

Not just doctors even pharmaceutical companies seem to be overflowing with the milk of human kindness. In addition to the scores of medical camps organised by various service clubs, the drug manufacturers and suppliers are generous supporters of such initiatives by social groups. 'Conferences of all sorts are sponsored by these pharma companies where doctors work overtime to build  PR contacts on 'I invite you, you invite me' basis. Agra, in fact is a much favoured destination where medicalism gels with tourism,' comments event organiser Premendra Jain.

On the face of it there seems nothing objectionable with organizing camps to help people in dire needs. But when an initiative becomes a popular trend, skeptics and doubting Thomases can not be faulted for looking beyond what appears to the naked eye.

Its not easy or safe to speak out against doctors these days, says social activist Shravan Kumar Singh. 'Nothing in life comes free. There’s always a catch somewhere. In most camps the only thing free that you get is some vitamin pills, calcium or iron tablets. Most often the patients are directed to the doctors’ clinics where they are forced to pay through the nose,' Singh adds.

Without mincing words another social worker who has been associated with population control programmes said: 'lot many successful doctors seem to suffer from some guilt complex which they try to get rid of by involving themselves in pseudo social service activities which prove a futile exercise for the simple reason that one can only see patients  and  not treat them within a short period when hundreds of people are lined up. In most cases all that the doctors do is to write out a list of diagnostic tests from their favourite labs which reward the doctors with handsome kickbacks.'

A gynaecologist said she even noted a bunch of 'camp junkies' who moved from one health camp to the other collecting medicines and sympathy. 'You can’t do justice in a one day camp because the patients normally can not report back with the test results the same day, which means that if they wished to consult the same doctors they would need to pay fees at their clinics.'

While there was no tangible benefit to the community the doctors did gain a lot from the PR and marketing opportunities that these camps provided. 'Some doctors who are highly publicity minded have even been hiring professional PR agencies from Delhi to help them organize camps and get propaganda mileage in the media,' said activist Padmini of the Naari and Bal Vikas Samiti.

'Its sad but true that most doctors do not any longer remember the Hippocrates' Oath they had taken years ago. 'Now its all about money and affordability, cuts and kick-backs, avoidable tests, unnecessary medication,' says Mukesh Jain whose initiative in the city to open a medicine outlet near the medical college to provide genuine medicines at subsidised- wholesale rates, has proved a phenomenal success touching daily sale figure of Rs.1.5 lakh. 'I am sure there must be good doctors also but the mainstream health system has definitely got derailed,' Jain add quoting Antony Chekhov 'doctors are just as the lawyers; the only difference is that lawyers merely rob you, whereas doctors rob you and kill you too.'