New Delhi: For years, Indians have suspected that doctors operate unnecessarily, order unwarranted tests and procedures, take kickbacks for referring patients and behave like rapacious robber barons rather than carers.

Now the horror stories that used to form the subject of dinner-table banter - such as cardiac surgery prescribed for a shoulder pain that got better with exercise - are coming straight from the horse's mouth.

One doctor said he was reprimanded for having only a 10 per cent "conversion rate" – a reference to how many outpatients seen by a doctor were advised to undergo surgery. Credit:Bloomberg

In a report released this week, 78 doctors - half of whom have identified themselves - provided testimony of the greed and corruption that seem to have become endemic in the Indian medical profession.

They have told the Pune-based NGO which produced the report, SATHI (Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives), that private hospitals have become so commercialised that maximising profit underpins every aspect of treatment.