Pakistan's dismal public health system is rife with mismanagement and a paucity of resources. Amidst this shambolic system, one hospital in Karachi has been providing specialised healthcare to millions. Free of charge. As the Sindh Institute of Urology and Transplantation celebrated 40 years of successful service, Dr Sanjay Nagral visited the facility and met the man who helms it, armed with the simple philosophy that 'No person should die only because they are unable to afford medical expenses.'
'Aruna Shanbaug's death has again opened up the euthanasia conversation in the public domain. For a health care discourse often dominated by inane news, this is not such a bad thing.'
This cult of speed reaches its crowning glory during that peculiar Indian spectacle called medical camps. Medical camps are an activity in which doctors from cities travel to underserved areas, often on weekends, where the poor are then herded in hundreds for deliverance, photo-ops and freebies. In their more evolved form, there are surgical camps where bewildered and overawed patients are put onto operating tables and, much like an assembly line, a series of operations are performed in rapid succession. The surgical instruments are often magically sterilised in minutes between procedures, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
Mumbai claims to have a large number of developed public and private medical facilities. It attracts patients from all over, including abroad, for specialist care. Hoardings proclaiming all sorts of 'state-of-the-art' medical facilities dot its skylines. The lack of a developed emergency medical response system is completely incongruous with all this, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
Mumbai claims to have a large number of developed public and private medical facilities. It attracts patients from all over, including abroad, for specialist care. Hoardings proclaiming all sorts of 'state-of-the-art' medical facilities dot its skylines. The lack of a developed emergency medical response system is completely incongruous with all this, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
By deserting public hospitals we are dismantling our public health-care system, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
That a popular film star with a huge audience articulated on prime time television what health activists have been saying for years is perhaps what has disturbed India's medical fraternity, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.
An act of amazing generosity by the grieving family of a working class man who had suddenly died resulted in restoring life to another ordinary working class man, whose tenacity and optimism helped him wait for a long time on the waiting list. What makes this miracle even more amazing, says Dr Sanjay Nagral, is that transplant transcended what is perhaps one of the deepest fault lines in Indian society, the chasm between two religions.
The Hazare movement and media have focussed on corruption of the 'spectacular' variety. But what has escaped the discussion is the institutionalised corruption in-built in the conduct and practice of professions ike the medical profession in India, says Dr Sanjay Nagral.