A surprise health check and failing

Ethel da Costa

submitted by the author to TGF on November 11, 2002

A statement in the newspaper remains imprinted on my memory: `Multi-millionaire Bill Gates concerned about India’s healthcare.’ I paused, chewed over the headline and soon found out for my self, through sheer personal experience that he was one hundred per cent right. India’s health care systems were pathetic, sure. Affording only the rich the luxury. Given this truth, can you imagine how miserable the scene should be in Goa? And it is.

Recently, my brother had a fall. Living in a village, one learns to programme oneself to live solely on the mercy of a dear God (that’s if you’re his favourite or not). And, of course, the few neighbours one has been patient enough in one’s lifetime not to quarrel with.

Predictably, as we’ve found out so often, there’s no doctor to meet an emergency. And our local hospital has fine-tuned itself only to meet patients who are normally inclined towards contracting bed-friendly-soon-leaving-less-fussy patients with needle-pricking friendly diseases – common cold, running stomachs and all its affiliated cousins. Oh, and did I forget an ambulance? Now, what’s that? A ramshackle bin on wheels that a village hospital usually boasts of, more absent and perpetually running private errands. Bill Gates would do well to have his personal GP accompany him, in case he develops a cardiac arrest.

Sheer common sense and timely help from family and friends, saw my brother at the doorstep of an efficient hospital in South Goa. But imagine how far he had to go for medical assistance. What happens to the poor who cannot afford the luxury of even hiring an ambulance -- Yes, I say luxury because all our hospitals look at the `affordables’ with wide eyed masked glee – and are reduced to shoddy treatment (both, physically and mentally0 by the angels of good health? Socrates too, unfortunately, has been reduced to just a price tag. So, God help the less fortunate.

As a mother, every time I walk out through my front door on wok, I fervently pray to the guardian angels to look after my girls, after telling my housekeeper 12 times, every single day, what to do in an emergency. All mothers carry extra baggage of anxiety, coupled with the stress of fulfilling one’s obligations towards work, career and personal growth.

I hardly see healthcare as a priority fostered either by the government, or yes, our employers. We have simply taken health for granted. Or rather, the lack of it. While the `snob class’ fly out to Mumbai with the cheque books to endorse their faith in the US returned medico (would I be banished into the kingdom of ill-health for wanting to say `commercial.’?) practitioners, the groveling-to-make-a-livelihood segment of our population turn to quacks. Some of them surprisingly practice even in our hospitals today.

My friend in the US once seriously asked me, over a long distance call, whether we had compassionate doctors at all in my state. I flew to rescue our reputation. Knowing fully well that he had merely stated the truth, without ever having visited Goa. If he dared to step inside any one of our government run hospitals, he would probably run for his oxygen mask and take Bill Gates’ cheque books with him. Knowing how notorious India is for her scams – even cow food is not spared – fat chance Billy’s dollars will find an honest do-good intention.

My sister in the US tells me about compulsory health insurance, and state-of-the-art medical facilities at the service of the all classes, without discrimination. I told her the only insurance I’m familiar with in Goa is life insurance, and I don’t like those people giving me doom stories one bit. She’s not amused. Neither am I.

In India, we’re not talking about saving lives. We’re talking about death all the time.

Voluntarily spawning a mega crore industry that sustains its business on other people’s deaths. Is that why all the governments in years gone by, have hardly devoted monies to upgrade, update and upscale the quality of medical services available in the State?

In Mumbai, I’m told horror stories about certified doctors stealing body organs through foul means.

There is a whole medical community consciously putting Socrates to shame, and the poor are disappearing by the number on account of this. Right from the child picked up from the street, to the farmer going in for an appendix operation only to find his kidney missing. Coming back to Goa, with an IITian background, can’t Parrikar apply technology to technique, and make sure compassion compliments commercialisation to ensure that there are more productive citizens contributing to the welfare of the State? A tour of all the government run hospitals should open his eyes to the shabby hygiene conditions of these hospitals. Not to forget the huge sanitation threats they pose to its inhabitants, the lack of medical equipment (a virtual pandora’s box, believe me), the lack of well-trained doctors posted at these hospitals. With the right kind of incentives, and good salaries, I’m sure doctors would not be encouraged to leave shop and run abroad, including encouraging the younger breed of nurses who don’t practise SM.

This grim scenario doesn’t spare private hospitals.

My brother had to bear traveling from South Goa to Panjim for a CT Scan, and then enduring the journey back on our potholed roads. Why? The hospital had no scanning facilities. Another scanning centre in Vasco – where my sister was recommended by her doctor for a bone scan – gave her meningitis because the centre though it profitable (while charging the patient full fee) to use cheap, low quality drugs on its patients. The medical practice in Goa is a burgeoning racket. And yet, there are those doctors who shine out like jewels in a muddy pond, with their selfless dedication and commitment to the cause of the poor.

I honestly think that we are party too to this scene. Because we haven’t been collectively asking the governments for good, safe, effective health care. Like our falling governments, we have taken our rising mortality for granted too. It’s not as if the government has no money. There’s more and lots, right from our repeatedly dug roads, to our failing water systems, our falling bridges, leaking oil tanks, fast depleting fish reserves…Mr Parrikar, I could go on. If the government can’t reach out to its less fortunate masses, there’s very little we can expect of its performance. And oh, yes, you can ask the chattering classes of Goa – natives and emigrants making their moolah enjoying the facilities Goa has to offer for their own betterment and still cribbing – to contribute towards this worthy cause. If not anything, it could atleast ensure them good karma!


Ethel da Costa
November 11, 2002
 

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