A Prescription for Turning Medicine Into a Healing System

Setting modern medicine on the path to healing is a stupendous job. However it has to be attempted 
because the harm done to the population has crossed all decent limits and the results that show 
cannot be brushed under the carpet any longer. How can this come about?
1. Its ethical practitioners must come together, abandoning the industry formed associations
2. The Government’s present efforts to promote generic medicines must be adopted. There is 
really no scientific basis for most compound drugs
3. The senior physicians must create protocols for others to follow based upon sincere attempts 
in certain other countries and based upon the physicians experience
4. The system of medical representatives educating doctors and the system of commissions 
based upon targets set must be immediately stopped
5. The ethical practitioners must stop being educated at the annual and regular industry jaunts
6. The fees of private practitioners must be increased 20 to 30 times, if not more
7. The physicians should renew their oath and have the interest of the patients as their only goal
8. There should be countrywide workshops to identify and weed out harmful practices
9. A scientific body composed of ethical medical scientists will audit all processes and 
procedures for safety, efficacy and in view of latest findings that refute earlier cherished beliefs
10. The long term impacts of the system on patients should be studied on top priority
11. The ethical bodies should interact with other systems to initiate a system of integrated medicine
12. The system of GP’s must be urgently reintroduced
13. It should be acknowledged that the body-mind complex has the ability to heal which 
must be studied in depth
14. Toxicity as an important factor for disease must be acknowledged and a system of 
detoxification using safe methods must be devised. The medical fraternity must undertake
extensive campaigns to bring awareness about the toxins in use.
15. The public health measures like clean water, sanitation, poverty reduction, housing, 
nutrition, exercise and in case of infectious disease, isolation, and diet should be the topmost priority  
16. As in developed countries scheduled drugs must be available only with prescription
17. The system should abandon its big brother attitude and again adopt the stance of constant
learning that was the hallmark of the pioneers
18. There should be a system of acknowledging iatrogenic harm and arranging for treatment and compensation to victims. Acknowledging harm done often calms down the patient and family 
rather than a rigid denial. 
19. The practitioners should rule from the heart and not the head
20. It should be ensured that the right people with the required qualities enter the profession.
As an activist of 31 years standing I think my suggestions should be heeded. It is obvious that 
halfhearted cosmetic measures will not do. The entire profession should rise as one. The objective 
of the exercise is to make the behemoth a healing, truly curative system. Unless cures are the goal 
the system will continue to harm. The body is not a machine, reductionism is the pathway to
disease. These concepts are best discarded and holistic methods adopted. There is no other 
way to turnaround the system.
Others can add.