As the dengue death toll continues to rise, our elected representatives must be compelled to take drastic steps to improve public healthcare and sanitation across the board
Indians have always been boastful of an ancient civilisation and a culture which deeply respects humanity and human values. The recent news about a couple (laxmi Chandra Rout and his wife Babita) having committed suicide on account of the death of their seven-year old son Avinash due to dengue is a grim reminder that all is not well with this once superior civilisation and the healthcare system.
The society is moving more and more to the brinks of fossilised human emotions. This also reflects on the poor governance of our heath care system. Government hospitals are overcrowded and the aim of the private hospitals is to get wealthy and to fleece the patients to earn money. The so-called five star facilities they show are just to extort money from the gullible patients and their relatives.
The unfortunate couple could not bear the pain of the death of their son and hence, committed suicide. On the one hand, this shows the fragility and weakness of the human mind and on the other, it reflects poorly on the ethics of medical profession in India. Most of the doctors in private hospitals treat the patients as animals as incidents like this are growing day-by-day.
Most of the people are either poor and cannot afford the cost of litigation or else, people know that nothing is going to happen, so why waste time and money. This couple had been running from pillar to post to admit their son in a hospital. The Moolchand hospital in Saket and Max hospital in Saket refused to admit the child and ultimately the Batra hospital admitted the child on recommendations from a doctor’s friend as reported in the media.
The child died the next day as critical time was lost. Had the Moolchand hospital admitted the child, this tragedy could have been definitely avoided. The couple in a fit of emotional weakness committed suicide and this act of theirs cannot be supported by any right thinking people.
However, it has raised very vital questions about the governance of our healthcare system and the cause behind the spread of such vector borne disease. The Government as a first step should immediately cancel the license of these hospitals for refusing to admit the child and take them over and establish a trust to run these hospitals.
The doctors on duty should be stripped of their rights to practice for life and should be prosecuted for negligence. Unless this is done, private hospitals will never change their attitude towards human life.
Second, fresh guidelines should be issued for devising a protocol for various procedures once a patient reaches the hospital. When the hospitals apply for land etc, they promise free treatment to the weaker sections of the society but once they are in operation they forget about it. The Government should bring them under the purview of the Right to Information Act, (the cost of public land given to these hospitals in prime locations is worth crores) and also under constant supervision and monitoring on all aspects of their functioning including the cost norms etc as the right of life is enshrined in the Constitution as fundamental right and the Government must enforce it.
Third, there is urgent need to give proper thrust to expand the healthcare services and infrastructure by opening more and more hospitals in a decentralised manner to meet the needs of the people. The biggest problem today for the planners is to provide health, education, pure drinking water, skill development and a safe environment.
The corporate world is generating wealth and employment but their contribution towards nation building needs to be harnessed in a systematic and regulated manner. For this purpose, a trust or special purpose vehicle should be established by the Union Government for mobilising funds and other resources including from the corporate social responsibility provisions. The Companies Act could be amended to provide for systemic channeling and use of CSR funds for these activities.
Fourth, medical education needs reform both in contents as well as in its ethics. To be a good doctor, a youngster had to sacrifice more than 10 to 15 years in building up his or her career compared to engineering and other professions. Once they get the opportunity they throw the Hippocratic oath to dustbin and gradually many become aloof to human suffering and pain. While there are several dedicated doctors in the country, well meaning medical professionals had to join hands to salvage the reputation of the profession.
Fifth, a healthy and clean environment is a must. Today the local bodies and other Government agencies are working on the Prime Ministers agenda of Swachch Bharat Abhiyan, but it will not take off unless it becomes a people’s movement.
The National Green Tribunal has been active in dealing with environmental issues but is excessively obsessed with pollution in Delhi. The Supreme Court had set up the road map for pollution control in Delhi and its smooth monitoring should be ensured. The Tribunal instead of running after the diesel vehicles should focus on strictly enforcing technology up gradation of vehicles and should consider if the increase of vehicles in Delhi (now more than 80 lakh compared to 30 lakh in 2000) is commensurate with road and other infrastructure.
For the smooth movement of such huge vehicles all the roads should have been made signal free and elevated corridors should have been made through forward planning in a time bound manner. We see notices to the police asking it to plan for smooth traffic movement. The poor traffic police man is scratching his head as how to plan. This Tribunal should ask the Government and local agencies to go in for scientific waste management as the littering of waste in cities and urban areas is a serious problem today. A lot of diseases like dengue, malaria, hepatitis etc are due to poor urban hygiene and bad waste disposal resulting in public hazards of enormous proportions.
In other countries, energy is made out of the waste but in India, it is becoming health hazard everywhere. The objective of this narration is to raise the consciousness of people who govern us to take drastic steps to remedy the situation concerning health issues of this huge population of this country. Without holistic efforts the Prime Minister’s clean India movement will not meet its desired results.
(The author is former director general, Indian Council of Forestry Research and Education, and former Principal Secretary, Agriculture, Horticulture, Animal Resources and Forest Department, Government of Tripura)