Author Archives: Pankaj Adhikari

Mission: Serving poor in a remote village

My destination: A medical camp at Sri Ramakrishna Sevashram in Dakshin Akhratala village in North 24 Parganas. Rivers Bidyadhari and Betuni meet here, about 70km from Kolkata.

Ramakrishna Mission Residential College, Narendrapur conducts the medical camp on third Sunday every month.

I got into the Innova along with my friend Satyaki Pal (he’s been teaching English in Narendrapur RK Mission College since 1983) near Jadavpur police station around 8.45am last Sunday (July 16). Our next stop was SSKM Hospital where we had to pick up three doctors– Dr Anisha Rathore, Dr Akhansha Mishra and Dr Varsha Saboo– who volunteered for the medical camp.

Changing face of Bengal-Part II

As I was riding pillion, Anup kept telling me how mobile phones, especially smartphones, have changed the lives of rural folks. “TVs and cell phones have brought about a bewildering array of changes in values and aspirations of the villagers,” he said.
I was reminded of Tagore’s speech titled Robbery of the soil, which he had delivered at Calcutta University in 1922. “Villages are nearer to nature than towns and therefore in closer touch with the fountain of life. They have the atmosphere which possesses a natural power of healing. It is the function of the village to provide people with their elemental needs, with food and joy, with the simple poetry of life and with those ceremonies of beauty which the village spontaneously produces and in which she finds delight.”

Changing face of rural Bengal

As the Aranyak Express screeched to a halt at Garhbeta station around 11 in the morning, I was amazed by the quiet and serene surrounding of the station. Unlike any suburban station that we are familiar with, there was no crowd’s jostling on the platform and no scramble for seats as those waiting got into the train without any fuss. The May sun was unusually expansive and the heat and humidity wasn’t intolerable. What struck me particularly was the absence of din and bustle at the station. And I was lapping up every moment.
My destination: Prof H.S. Paul Memorial School about five km from the station.

Will media keep the heat on private hospitals?

The robust enthusiasm with which the Clinical Establishments Bill, 2017 was passed by the West Bengal government on March 17 should not be allowed to flag. The Bill aims at bringing transparency, ending harassment of patients and checking medical negligence in private hospitals and nursing homes. There is no gainsaying about the CM’s well-intentioned initiative. But, what causes concern is that two probe committees have submitted their reports about a month ago. But the public is still in the dark about the details of reports.

India worst in healthcare transparency

Transparency is critical for efficiency in the healthcare sector and for patients.
KPMG, a global consultancy firm, in a recent study has found that India is second from bottom, only above China, in healthcare transparency. The global firm has surveyed the healthcare sector in 32 countries on transparency using six measures (quality of healthcare, patients’ experience, finance (price and payments), governance, personal healthcare data and communication of healthcare data).

Why people go for doctor bashing

Why do people go for doctor bashing or hospital vandalism? People have been witness to doctors’ lack of accountability, their inhuman faces and malpractices and private hospitals’ mindless profiteering and utter neglect for years. Irrational drug prescribing, kickbacks for referrals, needless investigations and surgical procedures are widespread in private hospitals. Things have come to such a pass that people have lost trust in the entire healthcare system.
Doctors must think why incidence of doctor bashing or hospital vandalism is unimaginable in the developed countries like the US and UK.