आओ पालमपुर वालो मिल कर हम सब एक बड़ी मुहीम चलायें,

क्यों ना ‘VMI’ को  एक उम्दा सुपर स्पेशिलिटी हस्पताल बनाएं?

I post a blog on how and why we need good healthcare

Let’s get proactive on it and not just sit, stand and stare

Can VMI become a super specialty hospital?

                     

          

Among the development indices – whether of a country, a state or even a town – Medicare should figure right on top. But sad to say, it is not so. Cases of medical negligence are legion- both in private hospitals as well as the government ones. The corporate hospitals have degenerated into lucrative commercial enterprises and done more harm than good in providing quality medical service to the people. And the state-run hospitals are notorious for apathy, general lack of modern equipment, overwork, inefficiency and officialdom. Did you see the heart-rending, ghoulish image of a patient with a severed leg a few days back? The doctors – who have since been suspended – put the severed part of the leg under his head to serve as a pillow. Can medical callousness get worse than this? Rural scene is even more dismal where in the absence of good doctors and dispensaries, quacks rule the roost…though for minor ailments their services do come handy for the healthcare-deprived folk.

The scene in our own state is hardly bright. There is a dearth of trauma centers and other medical facilities to handle critical emergencies with the required expertise and without delay. The patients are often rushed to PGI Chandigarh and the ‘golden hour' is lost in transportation due to long distances- there being no faster mode than travel by road. Thus many a life is snuffed out even before making it to the hospital. Further, the IGMCs and the RPGMCs, as I said before, suffer from sloth.  They do go on an overdrive but only when any of our VVIPs – who else but the politician – falls sick. In such a situation, leaving all other patients howsoever critical for devil to care, the whole battery of doctors and paramedics, displaying feverish energy, hovers around the ailing VVIP to leave no stone unturned in providing him the best of care and treatment. For they know that any lapse, then they had it! Or they are flown to best medical institutes of the country and even abroad by special planes without any loss of time. Contrast this with the rural hinterlands where at times the patients are ferried on kins’ backs or on hand-pushed carts.

Now coming to my own town Palampur, we have a government civil hospital, several private practitioners and clinics. In addition there is the Vivekananda Memorial Institute (VMI) – Shanta ji’s dream brainchild - which has filled a yawning gap in basic healthcare facility for the town and neighbouring areas to some extent. In recent times, the VMI has also begun providing the services of visiting super-specialists in the fields of urology, cardiology, neurology etc. But this is not enough. As we all know originally it was fancied to be a super-specialty hospital on the lines of Apollo, but became a victim of our state’s politicians’ sinister machinations, wicked political calculations, parochialism and regional bias. This growing, bustling town needs a lot more in health care than what exists. In critical situations, the Civil Hospital refers the cases to ‘Tanda’ of which I personally don’t have very happy memories: my own brother died owing to sheer negligence and delay- first at CH Palampur and then at Tanda about which I have already shared a post with you months before. Let’s not go into that again although I have the documents and the desire to have the matter probed again after a botch-up by the MCI.

The pertinent point is: can VMI now turn a corner and graduate into a top class, premier health institute for tertiary health care?..With adequate checks and balances of course. I say this because, happily, the political scene has changed and changed for the better. All equations are just right and fall in place. We have Mr J P Nadda in Delhi as the union health minister. He gels well with Shanta ji. Our new CM Jai Ram Thakur is firstly a person above ugly, silly, mean, divisive regional prejudices of the predecessors. Secondly, he enjoys the confidence of Shri Shanta Kumar who played a key role in his anointment to the CM’s chair. Mr Vipin Parmar is the state health minister representing this region and of course his close confidante. Then with the BJP in power at the center and the state, and all the factors so favorably poised, isn’t this an absolute Godsend? Shanta ji’s tenure as MP will be over in a few months’ time. Therefore he must seize this opportunity with both hands and use his clout, position, acumen and political sagacity that he possesses in ample measure to translate his old grand vision into a reality. I think that the residents of Palampur, the BJP activists in particular, should pursue this idea proactively with him, Mr Vipin Parmar and all others who matter to persuade them to make VMI what it was initially intended to be. Since this is going to be his last term, it will be Shanta ji’s unique and splendid gift to the town and the region for which he will be saluted and worshipped for generations to come.
                        

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