Unshackle (vimochana), please!

text of letter sent to The New Indian Express:

On the 28th of the last month, there was an article in your columns (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.

In response to a survey conducted by a leading daily, last year, 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 running of 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.

Perhaps Vimochana would like to support this view? They are doing good work and they have a powerful voice.

not for the poor; only for the desperate

Yesterday, again, I was with the children (read 'building awareness' in the 'Gyaan guru' blog). One of them came up with how, when his aunt was taken for delivery to the Vani Vilas hospital, the staff there played around till they were paid some Rs 1,000/- collectively, by way of bribes, before they got down to attending to her. For all that, it was a nightmarish experience. So much so, they have sworn never to step into a government hospital ever again.

In fact, on a subsequent occasion, when another family member needed to be hospitalized, they chose to go to St Martha’s hospital, and in spite of the fact that it cost them dear, nobody was complaining.

I asked the rest if they corroborated the view. They were unanimous in agreement. And, mind you, these are all from really poor sections of the society.

User charges and government hospitals

letter sent to Indian Express on 24th June, ‘05:

"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.

Muralidhar Rao