At least three medical associations — Indian Interns and Postgraduate Association of Tamil Nadu, Tamil Nadu Government Doctors Association and Indian Medical Association — have raised issues with Star Vijay’s popular talk show, Neeya Naana , presented by Gopinath.
The medicos have accused those behind the show of misrepresenting well-established facts.
Kamalakannan, a postgraduate student of forensic medicine who has protested against the show, said it presented several unscientific ideas as scientific facts.
“Though we have a problem with the media painting all doctors with the same brush, the main issue is presenting wrong notions as though they have some basis in science. For instance, there was this bit about the problems of ultrasound scanning affecting babies, for which there is no evidence. Also, several wrong notions about diabetes and hypertension were tossed about. Both are very serious ailments and, if ignored, can have devastating effects on a patient’s health,” he said.
There is concern that programmes like these will further intensify patients’ mistrust of doctors, making diagnosis difficult, said medicos.
Defending the show, its director, Anthony Thirunelveli, said the debate was about excessive medical tests prescribed by private hospitals.
“I don’t know why government doctors are protesting. We respect them for their service. Also, this year alone, medical journal, The Lancet , has published 11 articles on problems in the Indian medical industry. The idea for the show came from an article published in a national newspaper which spoke of excessive medical tests,” he said.
Stressing that the show must be considered a platform, Mr. Thirunelveli invited the doctors to a debate, if they felt certain issues had not been presented in a fair manner.
“It is possible that the doctors who appeared on the show missed out on saying a few things. If there are any grievances, I invite them to our show to present their points of view, which will be broadcast without any edits,” said Mr. Thirunelveli.
Damage control with a wee bit of humour
So what if you make a mistake, even a really stupid one.
All you need is a little humour of the self-deprecating kind to get by. As we saw last week, with the cast of British period drama, Downton Abbey .
Some careless production assistant forgot to get rid of a plastic water bottle and it appeared in a promotional photograph that then went viral because of that boo-boo.
Clearly, the drama is set in an era that predates mineral water bottles by some centuries.
While the virtual world laughed at this, the cast members were busy laughing at themselves too. As if to contribute to the joke, they circulated a picture wherein all of them posed with a mineral water bottle each.
What’s that they say about removing a thorn with a thorn? Well, encore!
Reporting by Udhav Naig and Ramya Kannan
