Looking for a ‘better’ doctor? This habit could be hurting your health

Weather ePaper Today’s Paper Journalism of Courage Home ePaper Politics Explained Opinion India Business Premium Cities UPSC Entertainment Sports World Lifestyle Tech Subscribe Sign In TrendingUPSC OfferIPL 2026US NewsPuzzles & GamesLegal NewsFresh TakeHealthResearch🎙️ Podcast Advertisement function checkAndLoadWindowSizeScript() { if (window.jQuery) { // jQuery is loaded, include your script jQuery(document).ready(function($) { // Your existing script for checking window width if (window.innerWidth) var page_w = window.innerWidth; else if (document.all) var page_w = document.body.clientWidth; if (page_w > 1024) { $(".add-left, .add-right").show(); } else { $(".add-left, .add-right").hide(); } }); } else { // jQuery is not loaded, check again after 0.2 seconds setTimeout(checkAndLoadWindowSizeScript, 200); } } // Initial call to the function checkAndLoadWindowSizeScript(); NewsHealth and WellnessLooking for a ‘better’ doctor? This habit could be hurting your health Looking for a ‘better’ doctor? This habit could be hurting your health Patients chasing instant relief often restart treatment, repeat tests and risk dangerous drug complications instead of speeding recovery. 4 min readApr 20, 2026 10:00 AM IST No responsible physician will prescribe a potent treatment plan based solely on a patient’s verbal history of what the other doctor said. (File Photo; enhanced using Google Gemini) Make us preferred source on Google Whatsapp twitter Facebook Reddit PRINT Written by Dr Ravindra Setty A patient visits a specialist seeking treatment for a persistent cough, receives a five-day course of medication, and by the third morning, is frustrated that the cough hasn’t gone away. The patient then heads to the waiting room of a different clinic or hospital, carrying a folder bulging with half-finished prescriptions and scan reports, and seeking a ‘better’ doctor who possesses a magic touch to cure the cough within hours. This practice, known as “doctor shopping”, is now widespread in urban Indian healthcare. Driven by a mixture of anxiety, lack of primary care gatekeeping and the easy availability of private practitioners, patients are inadvertently delaying their own recovery. Medicine is a science of evidence, and no responsible physician will prescribe a potent treatment plan based solely on a patient’s verbal history of what the other doctor said. When you enter a new consultation room, the diagnostic process begins from scratch. The new doctor, unaware of the nuances of your previous physical examinations, will likely order a fresh battery of tests. This leads to a redundant cycle of repetitive pathology which can make one go for duplicate blood profiles, liver function tests, and kidney panels. Redundant imaging multiple X-rays or CT scans provide no new information but add to your radiation exposure. Then comes the consultation fees where each first-time visit commands a higher premium than a follow-up visit. You aren’t paying for remedy; you are paying to prove the same facts repeatedly. In the absence of a single anchor physician who oversees the entire clinical picture, patients often end up taking overlapping medications. A patient might unknowingly take two different brands of a beta-blocker or an ACE inhibitor, leading to a dangerous drop in blood pressure. Furthermore, without a consolidated medical record, the new doctor may prescribe a drug that reacts adversely with a medication you are already taking for a different chronic condition. The result is not healing, but a new set of drug-induced complications that require even more treatment. Medicine involves a process of elimination. A doctor might start with a conservative first-line treatment. If the patient returns and reports no improvement, that becomes a vital piece of data which tells the doctor how to investigate the symptoms of the cough/infection further in order to offer better treatment. When a patient switches doctors because the first-line treatment didn’t work in three days, they break this logical chain. The second doctor starts with the first-line treatment again (or a slightly different variation of it), and the patient remains stuck in a loop of entry-level care. This delay may not create panic for simple infections but can be catastrophic in cases of underlying malignancies or autoimmune disorders where early detection is the difference between life and death. When patients feel they are not recovering quickly enough and switch healthcare providers mid-course, they often abandon their current antibiotics to start a new regimen. This incomplete exposure to medication does not kill the bacteria entirely. Instead, it provides the surviving pathogens an opportunity to adapt, mutate and undergo genetic changes to fight against the drug itself. In short, they become drug-resistant. Changing your doctor isn’t always wrong; it is necessary if there is a genuine lack of empathy or a clear misdiagnosis. However, make an informed decision. Ask for a timeline of a change in your condition and what you should do if things don’t improve. Consolidate your records in a single file. Seek permission for a second opinion if you are worried. A professional will usually encourage this and provide a summary for the other consultant. Instead of ghosting your doctor, go back for the follow-up and inform the doctor that the earlier prescription did not make you feel better. This is the moment where more specific diagnostic work begins. Your doctor needs your patience as much as you need the prescription. (Dr Setty is senior consultant, Cardiac Surgery, Narayana Healthcity, Bengaluru)