Previously: Sailing Against the Wind; Majority Wins
My name is Nadia Kumar Singh. I am a doctor and I work at the government hospital, Nala. Nala, which is a fairly large village is situated in Jamtara district of Jharkhand. This hospital at Nala was built three years ago to cater to all the surrounding villages in the block. Government spent sufficient money to build state of art facilities at the hospital. Nine doctors were posted to this newly built hospital. The village people were very happy who earlier had to travel two hours to Jamtara or Asansol.
My name is Nadia Kumar Singh. I am a doctor and I work at the government hospital, Nala. Nala, which is a fairly large village is situated in Jamtara district of Jharkhand. This hospital at Nala was built three years ago to cater to all the surrounding villages in the block. Government spent sufficient money to build state of art facilities at the hospital. Nine doctors were posted to this newly built hospital. The village people were very happy who earlier had to travel two hours to Jamtara or Asansol.
Everything was perfect to begin with but three months later, three doctors got themselves transferred to some urban location. The vacancies created were not filled. Some of us put in extra shifts to cater to the numbers. The situation deteriorated further when two more doctors stopped coming. Only four of us were left now. Our repeated pleas in the health department went unattended and situation stayed as it is. The free government medicine outlet in the hospital started running short on key medicines. The administrative guy in our hospital said helplessly - "The strings are pulled from above, I can not do anything. As far as possible please prescribe only those medicines that we have." The health department had become deaf by now. One of the educated residents in Nala tried to approach the local media but learnt that media got their share of the public pie from the top to keep quiet.
A few months later our salary stopped coming. On approaching the Registrar at the district we learnt that we need to give 5% of our salary as bribe to get the salary regularly and on time. This was the final nail in the coffin. Three others left and I am the only doctor at Nala hospital. Now, I work in the hospital for as long as I can apart from seeing the emergencies whenever called for.
The doctors who left earlier were wise and those who did not bother to join government service and go abroad were wiser. I don't know what keeps me hooked to Nala. I don't know why I want to stay foolish.
Epilogue: Government spends billions on developing infrastructures like schools, roads, hospitals etc. but is least bothered in running and maintaining those properly. Why wouldn't an IIT or AIIMS graduate join a private firm or leave for greener pastures abroad?
We need to have the basic minimum facilities at rural places so that the motivated youth of our country is not drained away abroad. And the focus needs to shifted to potential urban localities rather than on expansion of the existing ones.
ReplyDeleteRightly said. The frivolous distinction between plan and non-plan expenditure should be done away with too.
ReplyDeleteEven if amenities are available, no one will be ready to stay in a village for whole of their life..
ReplyDeleteWhat can be the possible start for a solution?
Apart from amenities and a decent standard of living proper functioning of tenure system should be ensured(i/e rotation between rural and urban locations).
ReplyDeleteGovernment spends billions on developing infrastructures like schools, roads, hospitals etc. but is least bothered in running and maintaining those properly. My friend, this is due to lack of audits or checks and balances in place. Secondly, the solutions that they provide are not sustainable because they do not "involve" the common man when they design implement such things, therefore people are left clueless when government pulls out its attention and the limelight has withered away.
ReplyDeleteEven private organizations would not be willing to provide a maintenance solution because of the bureaucratic hurdles involved and lack of incentive.
Therefore, the best foot forward is to empower the local people, e.g. as it happens in the case of a cooperative housing society after the builder has completed construction and granted possession to the people. The panchayats of the beneficiary villages can coordinate to set up a fund pool that can not only take care of doctors' salaries but also medicines and maintenance of other amenities in the hospital.
Agree with your tenured system, that will ensure a constant number of doctors in the hospital.
nice observation archi :) there are systems in place similar to that you mentioned but those are largely non-functional which is the point i want to drive home.
ReplyDelete