India and the US are probably the only countries that do not have a registry to record knee joint surgeries. In the UK, Sweden and other countries, it is mandatory for practicing doctors to submit details, said Srikanth Gollamudi, consultant orthopaedic surgeon at the Krishna Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS).
“Registries to record all details exist in all socialist countries, where the government has to take care of people. Commercialisation, like in the US, is also a reason why we don’t have a registry here,” Dr. Gollamudi explained on the sidelines of a two-day advanced course at KIMS titled ‘Knee Joint’ on Saturday.
Dr. Gollamudi, who spent more than a decade in the UK, pointed out that if there is a registry about all surgeries conducted, then the public can see the work of a doctor, and the latter can also be pulled-up for mistakes. “And from a surgeon’s perspective, one can know how a prosthesis helps or works on a patient,” he said, further stating that with no registry in place, a disaster caused by a bad prosthesis cannot be picked up until it is widely reported.
“Here [in India] we only have a voluntary registry, and there is no regulation. The problem with that is that doctors will choose not to disclose [details of] every operation,” Dr. Gollamudi said. And without regulation, every surgeon can claim to have 100 per cent success rates.
Other senior doctors at the event included Dr. David Gibson from the University of Connecticut who spoke about advanced studies in orthopaedics.
Commercialisation, like in the US, is also a reason why we don’t have a registry here
Dr. Srikanth Gollamudi
Orthopaedic
