health-careless
I had sent a letter as below to the Indian Express on 24th June, ’05.
Sub: user charges and government hospitals
"User charge is nothing compared to the huge sums we have to spend to bribe the hospital staff to ensure proper care for our loved ones. If it is a case of a surgery or even a delivery, the amount to be spent here on the staff is almost the same that would be spent in a private hospital". This quote by the government hospital patient's relative, who was asked by your reporter for his opinion on Mr Siddaramaiah (Dy Chief Minister)'s order of withdrawal of user charges, clearly sums up the actual position obtaining. Is it any surprise then that a visit to any of the Corporate hospitals in the city today will show you throngs of even lower middle class people patronising them. At least, they can be fairly sure that they will return home cured. As compared to that, in the case of the government hospitals, one needs to have a lot of luck to manage that given the callous attitudes, insanitary conditions, and the all pervading corruption.
In response to a survey conducted by a leading daily, a few months back, with a view to finding solutions to the wide-scale corruption plaguing government hospitals, a significant percentage of the respondents had suggested privatisation as a possible way out. Particularly in an area like healthcare, however, a check against unhealthy practices could perhaps be provided by strengthening the NGO/missionary institutions in the field, like St Johns, St Martha’s, St Philomena’s, Chinmaya, Ghousia, Rotary Trusts, etc, who all seem to be doing excellent work. The government would do well to hand-over the Victoria, Vanivilas, Bowring as well as all the ESI hospitals and dispensaries, to these institutions. May be a supervisory / regulatory authority could be simultaneously instituted to oversee all the related functions, while also scrapping the ministry.
Mr Siddaramaiah should realise that times have changed, and that his chances of re-election would be better served by more meaningful approaches.
On the 28th Nov,'06, there was another article in the Indian Express (on the front page) on dowry deaths in Bangalore. Quoting volunteers from ‘Vimochana’, a city based NGO, the article went on to describe the deplorable conditions in the burns ward of the Victoria hospital. The question that arises here is how come the Vimochana’s of this world continue to tolerate these kinds of conditions in the government hospitals. Alternatively, if they also think that there is no redemption for them whatsoever, like I do, why are they not suggesting alternatives instead of choosing to remain silent? Vimochana is doing good work. But, perhaps it needs to do a lot more.
Sub: user charges and government hospitals
"User charge is nothing compared to the huge sums we have to spend to bribe the hospital staff to ensure proper care for our loved ones. If it is a case of a surgery or even a delivery, the amount to be spent here on the staff is almost the same that would be spent in a private hospital". This quote by the government hospital patient's relative, who was asked by your reporter for his opinion on Mr Siddaramaiah (Dy Chief Minister)'s order of withdrawal of user charges, clearly sums up the actual position obtaining. Is it any surprise then that a visit to any of the Corporate hospitals in the city today will show you throngs of even lower middle class people patronising them. At least, they can be fairly sure that they will return home cured. As compared to that, in the case of the government hospitals, one needs to have a lot of luck to manage that given the callous attitudes, insanitary conditions, and the all pervading corruption.
In response to a survey conducted by a leading daily, a few months back, with a view to finding solutions to the wide-scale corruption plaguing government hospitals, a significant percentage of the respondents had suggested privatisation as a possible way out. Particularly in an area like healthcare, however, a check against unhealthy practices could perhaps be provided by strengthening the NGO/missionary institutions in the field, like St Johns, St Martha’s, St Philomena’s, Chinmaya, Ghousia, Rotary Trusts, etc, who all seem to be doing excellent work. The government would do well to hand-over the Victoria, Vanivilas, Bowring as well as all the ESI hospitals and dispensaries, to these institutions. May be a supervisory / regulatory authority could be simultaneously instituted to oversee all the related functions, while also scrapping the ministry.
Mr Siddaramaiah should realise that times have changed, and that his chances of re-election would be better served by more meaningful approaches.
On the 28th Nov,'06, there was another article in the Indian Express (on the front page) on dowry deaths in Bangalore. Quoting volunteers from ‘Vimochana’, a city based NGO, the article went on to describe the deplorable conditions in the burns ward of the Victoria hospital. The question that arises here is how come the Vimochana’s of this world continue to tolerate these kinds of conditions in the government hospitals. Alternatively, if they also think that there is no redemption for them whatsoever, like I do, why are they not suggesting alternatives instead of choosing to remain silent? Vimochana is doing good work. But, perhaps it needs to do a lot more.
posted by Muralidhar Rao at
1:14 AM
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