Let’s face the facts!
As of 2017, India achieved WHO recommended Doctor population ratio of
1:1000. (1) This is considered as a “paradigm shift” in public
health. This simply means that the medical community has equipped
itself with enough number of doctors for taking care of health of
massive Indian population of 1.33 billion. What remains now is
provision of the support staff like paramedicals, nurses,
pharmacists, physiotherapists etc, proper number of hospitals,
adequate infrastructure, and most important – political motivation.
All these are completely in the hands of our governments and
officials. At this moments, doctors are like those soldiers who are
fully geared up and waiting for the orders from commanders!
Doctors do accept that there are black sheep in the fraternity. But
such unethicals may number less than 1%. Similarly, we need to accept
that 99% of patients are good. They mean no harm to any doctor. The
miscreants among patients are also less than 1%. When we tell the
patients that they should not harm 99 good doctors for 1 being bad,
we also need to understand that 99 good patients should not suffer
for one bad patient. Whereas there are ten legalities in which a
doctor can be booked and penalised, there are hardly any for the
other party! Everybody feels justified when bad people are punished.
But, it is only when good people suffer that the rift increases
enormously.
I have always maintained that strikes will not ease anything. (2) In
a private hospital, it is usually the cost factor that enrages the
patient. They don’t realize that the high-costs are inevitable and
they do not guarantee a cure. When they do not get the perceived
results for the hefty expenditure, their rage is turned towards
doctors. (3) In a Govt hospital, patients feel neglected. They do not
appreciate that the doctor working round-the-clock around them is the
most helpless bit of that enormous system. They just see the brave
face of this budding doctor but fail to see the burden he is carrying
to propagate a dilapidated system, often at the cost of his own
health and comfort. When the patients irk reaches a vulnerable point,
the humanity inside them paves a way for bestial instincts. The
result is the inhuman behavior towards the very same person who had
helped them to reach that point. This cruel turn of events can
demoralise any human – doctor or not.
On short-term, we are resorting to strikes, demands of police
protection, formation of support groups, legalities, bargaining with
unwilling politicians and so on. But, what is the life of each such
measure? Our legal system is not fast enough to deliver a message to
the culprit. Our politicians are hardly trustworthy. Our police
system is probably more over-worked than ourselves and do not have
enough numbers to extend protection to us. About strikes, lesser said
the better. (2)
Since none of the measures seem to have even a small impact on a
short-term, we probably need to think long-term. We need to make sure
that our future generation is not deprived of brilliant doctors. At
the same time, we need to ensure that these brilliant minds do not
suffer any harm in the process. Balancing these two objectives with
constraints of corrupt political system, inept officials, miserable
funding provided for healthcare, growing tentacles of private players
in healthcare sector, dwindling standards of medical education,
growing costs, maddening urbanization, enormous inequity among
population and all others which directly / indirectly affect the
healthcare.
The long-term solutions are not for small players to implement!
However, there are mighty influential, humane, caring giants amongst
the Indian medical fraternity. It is for them to take a call and
stand.
The first long-term need would be establishment of Ïndian Medical
Service” (IMS) in the lines of IAS, IPS or IFS. This strategical
body will be autonomously responsible for the Indian Healthcare in
21st century. It will restructure the entire healthcare
sector of India with a vision for achieving health for everyone
irrespective of affordability. Unless the planning is perfect,
nothing can be executed in a complex system.
The second crucial point would be to enhance every Govt Hospital to
an autonomous, self sustaining level by introduction of separate
“payment” division and “non-paying” division. This should be
along the lines of train services – where the same train has First
Class, Second Class, Sleeper Class and General Class. Everybody
reaches the destination at same time, but the payment decides the
comfort. (5)
Third point is to upgrade every medical college to “Super-Specialty”
level by absorbing services of any super-specialist irrespective of
recognized qualification who is willing to serve. There are huge
number of qualified super-specialists in India who are interested in
charity. All that Govt needs to do is provide the necessary
infrastructure and some sort of tax concessions and / or nominal
payments for their services. Also, giving a respectable post to them
for their services. Done in the correct way, this alone can be a game
changer.
Fourth point would be mandatory allocation of free beds in every
private medical college and in super-specialty hospital, attaching
them to Corporate-Social Responsibility (CSR) of Corporate Sector and
industries. The accountability of utilization should be mutual and
reportable to the apex body.
Fifth point would be changing the medical curriculum to contemporary
requirements with encouragement for restructuring the healthcare
pyramid in its right perspective. (5, 6)
Sixth would be establishment of more secondary level hospitals at
every major town and tertiary level hospitals at every district
centre. This will ease the load on major hospitals of every state and
will slowly convert them to centres of excellence with proper
referral pattern. All these hospitals should be on “no loss-no
profit” basis under supervision of IMS. (4)
There can be umpteen number of such implementable suggestions if a
proper brainstorming is done. What is required is the appropriate
political, medical fraternity and industry motivation with right
minds at right places.
It is said that those who wish to feed mangoes to their children
should toil with planting the seeds without aspiring for fruits
themselves. It is probably the time to plant the seeds of our Healthy
Nation!
For elaborate reasoning, please refer the following:
Let’s face the facts!
As of 2017, India achieved WHO recommended Doctor population ratio of
1:1000. (1) This is considered as a “paradigm shift” in public health.
This simply means that the medical community has equipped itself with
enough number of doctors for taking care of health of massive Indian
population of 1.33 billion. What remains now is provision of the support
staff like paramedicals, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists etc,
proper number of hospitals, adequate infrastructure, and most important –
political motivation. All these are completely in the hands of our
governments and officials. At this moments, doctors are like those
soldiers who are fully geared up and waiting for the orders from
commanders!
Doctors do accept that there are black sheep in the fraternity. But such
unethicals may number less than 1%. Similarly, we need to accept that
99% of patients are good. They mean no harm to any doctor. The
miscreants among patients are also less than 1%. When we tell the
patients that they should not harm 99 good doctors for 1 being bad, we
also need to understand that 99 good patients should not suffer for one
bad patient. Whereas there are ten legalities in which a doctor can be
booked and penalised, there are hardly any for the other party!
Everybody feels justified when bad people are punished. But, it is only
when good people suffer that the rift increases enormously.
I have always maintained that strikes will not ease anything. (2) In a
private hospital, it is usually the cost factor that enrages the
patient. They don’t realize that the high-costs are inevitable and they
do not guarantee a cure. When they do not get the perceived results for
the hefty expenditure, their rage is turned towards doctors. (3) In a
Govt hospital, patients feel neglected. They do not appreciate that the
doctor working round-the-clock around them is the most helpless bit of
that enormous system. They just see the brave face of this budding
doctor but fail to see the burden he is carrying to propagate a
dilapidated system, often at the cost of his own health and comfort.
When the patients irk reaches a vulnerable point, the humanity inside
them paves a way for bestial instincts. The result is the inhuman
behavior towards the very same person who had helped them to reach that
point. This cruel turn of events can demoralise any human – doctor or
not.
On short-term, we are resorting to strikes, demands of police
protection, formation of support groups, legalities, bargaining with
unwilling politicians and so on. But, what is the life of each such
measure? Our legal system is not fast enough to deliver a message to the
culprit. Our politicians are hardly trustworthy. Our police system is
probably more over-worked than ourselves and do not have enough numbers
to extend protection to us. About strikes, lesser said the better. (2)
Since none of the measures seem to have even a small impact on a
short-term, we probably need to think long-term. We need to make sure
that our future generation is not deprived of brilliant doctors. At the
same time, we need to ensure that these brilliant minds do not suffer
any harm in the process. Balancing these two objectives with constraints
of corrupt political system, inept officials, miserable funding
provided for healthcare, growing tentacles of private players in
healthcare sector, dwindling standards of medical education, growing
costs, maddening urbanization, enormous inequity among population and
all others which directly / indirectly affect the healthcare.
The long-term solutions are not for small players to implement! However,
there are mighty influential, humane, caring giants amongst the Indian
medical fraternity. It is for them to take a call and stand.
The first long-term need would be establishment of Ïndian Medical
Service” (IMS) in the lines of IAS, IPS or IFS. This strategical body
will be autonomously responsible for the Indian Healthcare in 21st
century. It will restructure the entire healthcare sector of India with a
vision for achieving health for everyone irrespective of affordability.
Unless the planning is perfect, nothing can be executed in a complex
system.
The second crucial point would be to enhance every Govt Hospital to an
autonomous, self sustaining level by introduction of separate “payment”
division and “non-paying” division. This should be along the lines of
train services – where the same train has First Class, Second Class,
Sleeper Class and General Class. Everybody reaches the destination at
same time, but the payment decides the comfort. (5)
Third point is to upgrade every medical college to “Super-Specialty”
level by absorbing services of any super-specialist irrespective of
recognized qualification who is willing to serve. There are huge number
of qualified super-specialists in India who are interested in charity.
All that Govt needs to do is provide the necessary infrastructure and
some sort of tax concessions and / or nominal payments for their
services. Also, giving a respectable post to them for their services.
Done in the correct way, this alone can be a game changer.
Fourth point would be mandatory allocation of free beds in every private
medical college and in super-specialty hospital, attaching them to
Corporate-Social Responsibility (CSR) of Corporate Sector and
industries. The accountability of utilization should be mutual and
reportable to the apex body.
Fifth point would be changing the medical curriculum to contemporary
requirements with encouragement for restructuring the healthcare pyramid
in its right perspective. (5, 6)
Sixth would be establishment of more secondary level hospitals at every
major town and tertiary level hospitals at every district centre. This
will ease the load on major hospitals of every state and will slowly
convert them to centres of excellence with proper referral pattern. All
these hospitals should be on “no loss-no profit” basis under supervision
of IMS. (4)
There can be umpteen number of such implementable suggestions if a
proper brainstorming is done. What is required is the appropriate
political, medical fraternity and industry motivation with right minds
at right places.
It is said that those who wish to feed mangoes to their children should
toil with planting the seeds without aspiring for fruits themselves. It
is probably the time to plant the seeds of our Healthy Nation!
For elaborate reasoning, please refer the following:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6259525/
2.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/d17f5fbf-9a22-45d0-85ed-36292ea058bc
3.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/f0333a19-3e35-4aed-bc71-08df1c023514
4.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/e2e59a85-d9e5-4f16-a2c7-2893e0f4866b
5.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/b4104db7-fa77-4445-829c-a018cc7f0404
6.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/45a98b16-0b66-47f8-85c5-3103698d31f0
Comments and criticisms are welcome.
Read more at:
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/4ddd7c7e-e5dc-4c0d-8f63-4dd28c23fac8Copyright 2019 © Docplexus
Let’s face the facts!
As of 2017, India achieved WHO recommended Doctor population ratio of
1:1000. (1) This is considered as a “paradigm shift” in public health.
This simply means that the medical community has equipped itself with
enough number of doctors for taking care of health of massive Indian
population of 1.33 billion. What remains now is provision of the support
staff like paramedicals, nurses, pharmacists, physiotherapists etc,
proper number of hospitals, adequate infrastructure, and most important –
political motivation. All these are completely in the hands of our
governments and officials. At this moments, doctors are like those
soldiers who are fully geared up and waiting for the orders from
commanders!
Doctors do accept that there are black sheep in the fraternity. But such
unethicals may number less than 1%. Similarly, we need to accept that
99% of patients are good. They mean no harm to any doctor. The
miscreants among patients are also less than 1%. When we tell the
patients that they should not harm 99 good doctors for 1 being bad, we
also need to understand that 99 good patients should not suffer for one
bad patient. Whereas there are ten legalities in which a doctor can be
booked and penalised, there are hardly any for the other party!
Everybody feels justified when bad people are punished. But, it is only
when good people suffer that the rift increases enormously.
I have always maintained that strikes will not ease anything. (2) In a
private hospital, it is usually the cost factor that enrages the
patient. They don’t realize that the high-costs are inevitable and they
do not guarantee a cure. When they do not get the perceived results for
the hefty expenditure, their rage is turned towards doctors. (3) In a
Govt hospital, patients feel neglected. They do not appreciate that the
doctor working round-the-clock around them is the most helpless bit of
that enormous system. They just see the brave face of this budding
doctor but fail to see the burden he is carrying to propagate a
dilapidated system, often at the cost of his own health and comfort.
When the patients irk reaches a vulnerable point, the humanity inside
them paves a way for bestial instincts. The result is the inhuman
behavior towards the very same person who had helped them to reach that
point. This cruel turn of events can demoralise any human – doctor or
not.
On short-term, we are resorting to strikes, demands of police
protection, formation of support groups, legalities, bargaining with
unwilling politicians and so on. But, what is the life of each such
measure? Our legal system is not fast enough to deliver a message to the
culprit. Our politicians are hardly trustworthy. Our police system is
probably more over-worked than ourselves and do not have enough numbers
to extend protection to us. About strikes, lesser said the better. (2)
Since none of the measures seem to have even a small impact on a
short-term, we probably need to think long-term. We need to make sure
that our future generation is not deprived of brilliant doctors. At the
same time, we need to ensure that these brilliant minds do not suffer
any harm in the process. Balancing these two objectives with constraints
of corrupt political system, inept officials, miserable funding
provided for healthcare, growing tentacles of private players in
healthcare sector, dwindling standards of medical education, growing
costs, maddening urbanization, enormous inequity among population and
all others which directly / indirectly affect the healthcare.
The long-term solutions are not for small players to implement! However,
there are mighty influential, humane, caring giants amongst the Indian
medical fraternity. It is for them to take a call and stand.
The first long-term need would be establishment of Ïndian Medical
Service” (IMS) in the lines of IAS, IPS or IFS. This strategical body
will be autonomously responsible for the Indian Healthcare in 21st
century. It will restructure the entire healthcare sector of India with a
vision for achieving health for everyone irrespective of affordability.
Unless the planning is perfect, nothing can be executed in a complex
system.
The second crucial point would be to enhance every Govt Hospital to an
autonomous, self sustaining level by introduction of separate “payment”
division and “non-paying” division. This should be along the lines of
train services – where the same train has First Class, Second Class,
Sleeper Class and General Class. Everybody reaches the destination at
same time, but the payment decides the comfort. (5)
Third point is to upgrade every medical college to “Super-Specialty”
level by absorbing services of any super-specialist irrespective of
recognized qualification who is willing to serve. There are huge number
of qualified super-specialists in India who are interested in charity.
All that Govt needs to do is provide the necessary infrastructure and
some sort of tax concessions and / or nominal payments for their
services. Also, giving a respectable post to them for their services.
Done in the correct way, this alone can be a game changer.
Fourth point would be mandatory allocation of free beds in every private
medical college and in super-specialty hospital, attaching them to
Corporate-Social Responsibility (CSR) of Corporate Sector and
industries. The accountability of utilization should be mutual and
reportable to the apex body.
Fifth point would be changing the medical curriculum to contemporary
requirements with encouragement for restructuring the healthcare pyramid
in its right perspective. (5, 6)
Sixth would be establishment of more secondary level hospitals at every
major town and tertiary level hospitals at every district centre. This
will ease the load on major hospitals of every state and will slowly
convert them to centres of excellence with proper referral pattern. All
these hospitals should be on “no loss-no profit” basis under supervision
of IMS. (4)
There can be umpteen number of such implementable suggestions if a
proper brainstorming is done. What is required is the appropriate
political, medical fraternity and industry motivation with right minds
at right places.
It is said that those who wish to feed mangoes to their children should
toil with planting the seeds without aspiring for fruits themselves. It
is probably the time to plant the seeds of our Healthy Nation!
For elaborate reasoning, please refer the following:
1. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6259525/
2.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/d17f5fbf-9a22-45d0-85ed-36292ea058bc
3.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/f0333a19-3e35-4aed-bc71-08df1c023514
4.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/e2e59a85-d9e5-4f16-a2c7-2893e0f4866b
5.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/b4104db7-fa77-4445-829c-a018cc7f0404
6.
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/45a98b16-0b66-47f8-85c5-3103698d31f0
Comments and criticisms are welcome.
Read more at:
https://www.docplexus.com/#/app/posts/4ddd7c7e-e5dc-4c0d-8f63-4dd28c23fac8Copyright 2019 © Docplexus
