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Health Care? ! ?
A chilling story
Ethel da Costa
Did I read somewhere that the honourable Chief Minister wants to give Goa
a dose of quality education by setting up a saffronised education
corporation? That flying-in-the-air–and-making-no-sense-of-common-sense
scientists, IITians, cyber crackers, white
collared-looking-down-their-noses-and-thinking-they-are-God’s-gifts-to-humanity
will show us collective enlightenment at the end of our dark tunnel?
Well, the logistics seem all screwed up to me, if we
still can’t get our basic grassroot act together.
My point in question? Has the CM taken time off
from his busy schedules to get real with the REAL GOA?
It is commendable that he is thinking of taking Goa
to the brink of technology (even if her infrastructure is moons away to
meet the demands). It’s all fine to bring Cannes to Goa and some French
kissing too. It is fine to arm-twist decisions to suit political motives.
It is fine to level charges against the judiciary and then escape contempt
of court by sheer clout and privilege (which would otherwise cost a common
man with a jail term). But it is unacceptable to claim credit for
supposedly taking Goa to the 21st century at the cost of her shabbily
managed government health care systems. Has he made the time to check out
how the local PHCs in the remote corners of the State function? This
indifference in attitude is unforgivable. It is unthinkable. It is
pathetic.
What the reader is about to read is a gruesome true story that happened in
my village, Sanguem. It churned the bile in my stomach. It stunned me into
shock that even the caller on the other line had difficulty figuring
whether she did wrong confiding in me. And here we are pretending to be a
civilised human society. It would seem that we have sold our souls
completely by losing all sense of compassion and service to the less
fortunate. In particular reference here is the oath of medical ethics
developed by Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, and taken by physicians
as they begin their medical practice. The oath, among other things,
suggests just conduct without discrimination or bias. Political
affiliations was the last thing perhaps on this great Greek’s mind.
The caller on the line was agitated. Two women sought the services of the
local government run hospital in my village. One pregnant and in the stage
of delivery. The other, a relative accompanying her. High emotional dramas
seldom accompany deliveries in a village, especially amongst the poorer
sections of Goa’s population. Upon consulting the doctor in charge, the
patient was admitted and subsequently taken to the labour room. Now, the
state of the labour room leaves nothing to write back home. One corrugated
iron bed which had obviously seen better days in a decent era. Anyway, a
doctor and nurse attend to the patient in the delivery room, while the
relative sits outside waiting for the news of the birth. If the patient is
seeking words of comfort in her extreme discomfort, banish the thought.
There is no solace for the poor.
The patient goes through a normal delivery, and soon a bonny baby is born.
The rich would have celebrated this omen with great cheer and fanfare. Not
that this was the end to the patient’s agony. Her humiliation, in this
vulnerable state of moment, was about to begin. Having done his job, the
doctor quits the scene leaving the patient in the hands of the attending
nurse, who in this case, is an angel from hell. The relative is summoned
inside the labour room. Without much ardour, the newborn baby, whose
umbilical cord has just been severed from the womb, is placed in the
relative’s (unwashed) hands. She is ordered to wrap the baby in a towel
and clean the blood off its tender, nubile body. The baby is clothed
without a bath. The poor, it seems, don’t afford the luxury of a simple,
clean, hygienic bath to welcome life into the world!
The nightmare is far from over. The nurse from hell then proceeds to
direct the relative to clean the patient (and we know that deliveries are
a messy affair), clean the waste following the delivery, clean the
equipment, clean the mess on the floor, and then dress the patient to some
semblance of respectability. Unable to say `no’ to what was being asked of
her, the traumatised relative narrates that she went down on her fours and
scrubbed the floors. A task she had no business doing, when the hospital
employs staff to do the needful and are paid a decent government salary.
But gross discrimination is a grim reality in our government run
hospitals, in the presence of staff or the lack of it. The story does not
end here. In the absence of being provided warm water by the hospital –
these are cold monsoon days – to bath the mother and baby, the relative
has been carrying water from her house to the hospital every single day! I
leave it to you to assume what happens to those patients who live in the
remote areas of this village.
There is more horror that looks in your face, if you care to see. Given
the twenty-four bed capacity of this hospital, there are only two toilets
at the service of the patients. Most of the times they lie in filthy
conditions and without running water. There are two doctors and two nurses
who work the wards on shift basis. If they like your face you can dare to
wake them up from the night shift snooze. An ambulance meant for
emergencies, runs more personal errands than saving the lives of the
helpless. Patients are made to buy medicines from private pharmacies
despite the stock available at the hospital. Patients are clearly
discriminated based on the `have’ and `have not’ category they fit into
and treatment and medical attention administered accordingly. For all the
fancy government statistics that government salary fed babus wave in our
faces, this reality should bring you back with a resounding thud.
I have one simple question to ask our powers to be. If Goa is to sincerely
march into the 21st century, shouldn’t we ensure that our productive
population remain healthy so they contribute to the betterment of the
State? Why is the government discriminating the quality of services
available to the poor, because what is out of sight can’t hurt him anyway?
How can we talk about improving Goa when our lot of talented minds living
in our villages, are not even given an opportunity to compete with the
demands of living, since health is a non-issue on the government’s list of
priorities. Are we being just by intentionally diverting lifesaving funds
which are needed to upgrade our public hospitals and health care centres
for fuelling our grandiose plans of film cities, super highways and sky
buses? If India lives in her villages, so does Goa. The CM would do good
by taking a good look at his priorities, because only a healthy state can
truly be a wealthy Goa. The rest is inconsequential.
Ethel da Costa
August 25, 2003
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