Unregistered medical outlets

The Health Ministry's move to zero in on all unregistered private medical institutions is commendable. It would certainly spare the public the risk of submitting themselves to imposters posing off as medical practitioners. Today in every nook and corner one comes across 'medical clinic' sign boards which make one wonder as to how the country is short of doctors as is being frequently reported.

Some of the premises housing these clinics are so tiny one often sees patients crammed within. Impressive suffixes are attached to the practitioner on the name boards and patients who cannot afford exorbitant channelling fees are seen frequenting these wayside medical outlets.

It is anyone's guess if the treatment administered has the desired efficacy or if mere palliatives are offered to patients to swindle their money. Time and again we come across newspaper reports of medical misadventures by incompetent practitioners with fatal consequences.

Hence the need to identify and regularise all private medical institutions and ensure that patients are not endangered by charlatans in doctors' garb. One recalls the raids done on several illegal abortion clinics some time ago. We are not certain whether these are back in operation.

Steps should be taken to rope in all rouge elements who operate in the medical field. On the other hand measures should also be taken to improve the public health system further enabling the patients to receive a sound and risk free treatment.

Hall of Shame

The jail term imposed on Olympic Athletics champion Marian Jones by a US court for perjury is no doubt an insult added to injury following her fall from grace after admitting to taking performance enhancing steroids to power her way to stardom.

It did not take seconds for this iconic figure in world athletics to fall from her lofty pedestal to that of the level of a common criminal.

The magnitude of the shame and embarrassment brought on the American public by her act of cheating could be gauged by the fact that she was even struck off the Track and Field Hall of Honour of the North Carolina University where she left her mark by her athletic prowess.

Many present and past Olympic champions have unreservedly condemned her act of cheating and acquiesced with the verdict of the Court. Her act robbed her challengers including our very own Susanthika their due place in the Olympic Hall of Fame, while also basking in accolades and adulation that were not due to her.

The Marian Jones saga only goes to demonstrate the level to which every facet of life and field of activity have fallen prey to mammon in the present high financial stakes in the globalised power house.

Winning at any cost today is the name of the game. Gone are the virtues and values of sportsmanship such as playing in the true spirit of the game. The sporting world witnessed this during the acrimonious Sydney cricket Test match between India and Australia.

Sports too have been sucked into the corrupting influence of big money and sportsmen lured into accepting filthy lucre to throw away games or under perform which is now even seen in the hitherto untarnished game of tennis.

Today with big money thrown into sports and mind boggling financial rewards on offer the temptation is greater for resorting to dishonest means to achieve fame. We saw this phenomenon enter the cricketing field in the form of match fixing.

It is indeed sad that sports once considered a leisurely pursuit is now stained by the corrupting influence that has overtaken every field of endeavour and poisoned the morals of sportsmen. The mega bucks sponsorship packages and lucrative endorsements featuring sportsmen have today divested sports of its cherished ideals.

The Marion Jones saga should open the eyes of the world sports governing bodies to draw up a stringent code of ethics governing sportsmen including drastic penal clauses so that sport would be saved from the further stigma of cheating and corruption.