Indian Healthcare, at grassroots, has always been in a state of ambiguity. We have noticed many cases of patient death due to negligence and the use of cheap alternatives. Most recently, the replacement of fruit juice with plasma. The medical discrepancies either get hyped up or get no light at all. Media plays a huge role is narrating the story of corrupt Healthcare professionals. It is quite simple to draw conclusions and blame the system for striving to provide a standard quality of life for those in need. But is the solution for this situation that simple?
I have been doing an internship in a local government hospital for one month. I get to experience the receiving end of Indian Healthcare — the one-on-one interaction with patients who can’t afford the cure. The system that gets blamed for patient death, is the process that provides people with medicines, food, surgical procedures de-addiction programs regardless of their monetary status. In my opinion, It is one of the most magnificent examples of “care.”
But, the sector which needs the most “Humane touch” is gradually receding to numbers and profit. Well, what choice does the healthcare professional have rather than to get tangled in the web of numbers?
For some, a hospital could look like a business unit, a patient might look like a clinical subject, and medicine might be just another experiment. This perspective leads to discrepancies and negligences like the Plasma case and the Gambia — Maiden Pharmaceutical case, where the humane aspect of healthcare is lost midway. India is and always will be the pharmaceutical hub of the world. But, this proud fact shrouds the sad reality of the quality of our medicines, the number of clinical trials conducted illegally, the unrecorded deaths due to negligence, and the unfair compensation the families receive.
I could list out the scary details that Maiden Pharmaceutical products are circulated in 41 countries and the death of children due to contaminated cough syrup in India before the Gambia outbreak. But this is not a report. The facts would lower your opinion of the efforts put in by our scientists and healthcare professionals. I truly believe Indian Pharmaceutical Research has some ingenious minds with noble intent. There is no one to blame or put into question. Everyone joined the system to “help and cure.” The system as a whole is slowly disintegrating. We no longer provide care; we provide bottles of lies filled with placebo and hope. Everyone involved in healthcare intends to provide the right treatment a patient deserves, but many of them are largely restrained by subjective factors.
As an ambitious healthcare worker, finding my place in the system is challenging. Now, I am starting to think if the system of healthcare still exists or is it just another sustainable business avenue?
