We the people of India have undergone a significant change, particularly speaking about the way we deal with personal healthcare. The changing times have brought about a transformation that is apparently a necessity to stay informed about self health. Well the proverb, Prevention is better than cure, holds true and the good news is – today, people are taking preventive steps in order to stay in the pink of their health, It includes preventive measures like regular or routine health checkups as well, though it usually around 35-40 years of age that they start doing checkups. Contemplating this news, how good it really is, depends upon a few points, actually. As we come across different multi-specialty hospitals offering health packages of different types and costs, we also come across the variety of tests that need to be carried out. While some of the tests are mandatory or rather relevant, we might not be aware that some of them may cause bodily harm due to radiations. Therefore the statement.
The responsibility here lies on the hospitals and healthcare setups that offer such tests or packages. Scan through the health packages and you will find tests including X-rays, mammograms, CT Scans and more. The fact is that the tests need to be more targeted based on age, gender and need. International guidelines need to be followed but the truth of the matter is that Hospitals and healthcare centres are already showing a blind eye to the these guidelines. Here is India, there are a lot of fallacies about helathcare checkups. One of them being, the more the number of tests under a healthcare checkup list, the more is the reliability of the hospital and better the service. Beyond managing the health of the people, the hospitals also seem to have turned the so called community service affair into a full fledged business.
Internationally though, the norms, regulations and guidelines are highly stringent. The type of tests to be included in health checkup plans, the people to be targeted based on gender, agegroup and more, the repetition of the tests, etc. needs to be in accordance to the guidelines put in place. As mentioned before one of the common example of the same would be inclusion of X-rays and CT Scans under routine tests in India. On the flip side, internationally asymptomatic tests like X-rays or CT scans are not advisable at all due to the radiation harms they present to the people.
Even tests like mammography and pap smear are listed under healthcheckup plans for women in India. Apparently, visit the webpages of the best hospitals in India and to your surprise of shock, you would see these tests listed under their health checkup packages already. Even children are not spared. Routine X-rays on the name of wellness checks have become a common sight at pediatric clinics and hospitals. This is not just bad news, but sad news and is definitely putting to risk the lives of common people.
Master health checkups or any other checkups need to be devised for the benefit of the people and not for business sake. Undeniably, looking after your health and taking preventive measures through checkups is always a good idea, but to be informed about the procedures and the tests that are actually required is undoubtedly need of the hour. We always have trusted the doctors and hospitals on issues related to health, but times have changed and its high time to be well educated and informed about individual health checkups.
So, go for routine health checkups but at the same time check everything you need to know about health checkups before you do. Stay informed. Stay healthy
Rajarajeswari Hospital in Bangalore provides master health checkups with affordable prices