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Dead Souls
Infants
burnt in hell’s fires
Jagmohan Singh
 PATIALA: They
had not learnt to cry their lungs out. Their parents and siblings
had not laughed their heart out to celebrate the birth of the
newborns. Cruel hands of destiny snatched five infants from their
parents, denying them the opportunity to live a fuller life.
A couple of them
had barely opened their eyes and attempts to familiarise them with
the ways of the world had yet to begin. A couple had just managed to
get their first feed, which also became their last one.
An electric
short-circuit through an unattended incubator where ten babies were
placed to recoup in the Neonatology unit of the now infamous
Government Rajindra Medical College and Hospital, dealt the deadly
blow which the families will never forget, but which has been
already put on the backburner by heartless government machinery,
totally oblivious to the state of health in the state of Punjab.
Five other babies were saved by attendants of other patients, though
with acute burn injuries.
At the hospital,
or shall we say, scene of crime, for it was criminal medical
negligence of the first order, there was no doctor, no attendant, no
nurse and the college principal, Dr. Jaswinder Pal Kaur Shergill was
on leave. There was no telephone, no intercom and no emergency
communication equipment.
Soon after,
fearing retribution of the physical kind, the hospital
administration detained the parents of the deceased at the hospital
mortuary under the pretext of giving them the grants promised
post-haste by the government.
The fire
prevention brigade reached a good thirty minutes after the distress
call. Till then, nobody had used the fire prevention facilities in
the hospital. Nobody knows if such facility existed and if did,
whether the nurses, other staff and doctors were trained to handle
such emergencies.
The government
of Punjab’s
response was typical. After the routine condolences, a measly one
hundred thousand rupees grant was doled out by the deputy
commissioner of the district to the parents of the deceased infants.
If you have failed to notice, let me point out that an important
point can be raised here. The reason for announcement of such a
grant is that the kind of people who visit government hospitals are
poor and therefore one lakh rupees can easily reduce their
suffering. This is how pain and loss is measured.
An inquest has
been ordered, to be conducted by former high court judge, K. C.
Gupta. Isn’t it typical? Each one will now pass the buck to the
other. The probe will either never be completed or will its findings
will be forgotten, for we have become immune to such horrendous
occurrences.
If you think
that this is a rare occurrence at the government hospitals, think
again. All government hospitals are “disasters waiting to happen.”
Health care is a
far cry in
India and even
worse in Punjab. No one in his right senses, unless he is too poor
to afford alternative hospital care ventures into a government
hospital.
The
Punjab
minister for medical education, Mr. Tikshan Sood, responded to the
call of his conscience and has since sent his resignation to his
party chief. Perhaps the call of conscience was not a forceful one
to convince him to send the resignation directly to the Governor of
Punjab for immediate acceptance. So far, we do not what will be the
fate of the resignation.
Will the cries
of the babies and of their families will alter the state of health
care in the state? There is a big rot in the entire health system.
Budgetary outlay for health is minimal, but except for health NGOs
and the medical fraternity, nobody asks for more, doctors are in
short supply, but the pre-medical and medical examination systems
have been so structured that the minimum number of students pass
these exams, keeping the doctor-patient ratio to the minimum, Nurses
are aplenty, but ill-trained and therefore unemployable, but every
other day a new Nursing college is granted affiliation, so that
rural Punjabi girls can find it easier to move abroad for higher
nursing courses and then eventually migrate. Guidelines of World
Health Organisation are observed more in the breach than in the
practice.
Interestingly,
in case you do not know,
India and even
Punjab boasts of helicopter ambulances for the rich, famous,
connected and the political masters. A burgeoning middle class, fed
with health care advertisements in violation of the Hippocrates oath
and the guidelines of the Indian Medical Council, in print and
satellite media, now seeks expensive medical care.
The common man
and his siblings have no choice but to go to the poor government
hospital and wait for his kin to die. It is going to be a long haul
for the statement of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to become a
reality, which he made as he came out of the Critical Care Unit,
after his recent heart surgery, “I wish the common man gets the same
care and attention that I have been given.” For a long time to come,
it appears that the common man and his siblings would be let with no
choice but to go to poor government hospitals, where sometimes there
is no doctor, sometimes no medicine and sometimes giggling nurses
with no sense of shame or respect for suffering patients. Let us
only hope that things change enough that they do not have to wait
for their kin to die in these medical centres called government
hospitals.
4
February 2009 |
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