Chennai: The searing controversy over the death of J Jayalalithaa might not have erupted in such ferocity had it been a government hospital in the vortex and not a corporate healthcare giant that’s always been under public gaze for one reason or another. In fact, there have been questions also of the patient's status when she was wheeled into the Apollo emergency on September 22, 2016 “for fever and dehydration”, suggesting crucial pre-admission occurrence(s).
Retired Madras high court judge, Justice A. Arumughaswamy, has a load of work on his hands and possibly huge pressure from politicos picking holes from day one. They have already cast aspersions on his efficacy saying a ‘serving’ judge would have been better than one retired. The biggest burden upon the judge's shoulders, and the brain, would be the deciphering of the medical reports and the depositions from the healthcare experts, including Dr Richard John Beale, the consultant intensivist from the London Bridge Hospital.
While the judicial probe would move on at its own pace in the coming weeks and months, one question that should engage the public mind at least at this late hour - even if it continues to disinterest the ‘freebies’ government - is: 'Why are we stuck up on getting treated only in corporate hospitals and not at government hospitals, only to complain later about exorbitant charges and unethical practices?’
And why do our netas skip government hospitals and land up only in corporate hospital suites? Remember, some of the highly regarded TN leaders had undergone critical and complicated treatment at the government hospitals at Chennai and elsewhere in the state - Annadurai, Kamaraj, Rajaji, Karunanidhi and Kakkan. Also, some of the giants in the medical field in the country had worked at the government hospitals in Chennai, mostly at the General Hospital (November 1664) now known as the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital.
The greatest of physicians Dr K V Thiruvengadam, 'father of neurosurgery in India’ Dr B. Ramamurthi, pioneering heart surgeon Dr Victor Solomon and eminent gastroenterologist Dr N. Rangabashyam, are only a few names that could be reeled out at short notice from among the long list of those GH giants.
But still, now hardly any VIP steps into the GH unless it’s the minister or an IAS babu either on a ‘surprise'’check or to inquire about the condition of some media-relevant patient mass.
“Our government hospitals, whether in capital Chennai or down in the districts, are in pathetic condition that it's an embarrassment to say we are in the business of healing. The departments are short-staffed and ill-equipped, the paramedical care is dismal and the stock of medicines and other critical needs are just not enough. While the corridors and the toilets breed millions of bacteria of all kinds, the walls and the ceilings resemble those in some dreary prisons”, said a senior doctor at one of the 'premier' government hospitals. For obvious reasons, he requested anonymity.
“The government hospitals have fantastic doctors, but they lack critical support systems and that’s why they fail”, said Dr Kabali Neelamegam, eminent hepato-biliary and liver surgeon at the Fortis Hospitals. "Most of us in the corporate hospitals had trained at the government hospitals. We have descended from the moon and the skies”.
“Let me give you an example”, said Dr Neelamegam. “I had started doing laparoscopic surgery in England in 1989. And the procedure came into the GH (Chennai) only some four years ago. Also, the government hospitals lack the quick-response systems and the paramedical/investigative procedures are pretty bad”.
“I am paying heavy taxes, close to Rs.15 lakh as I-T every year, besides other government levies such as the GST and local taxes. And what am I getting in return from the State? Nothing”, said Dr Neelamegam. “My roads are bad, I do not have electricity at home (Chennai) for over an hour and there is filth all around. Why can’t the government focus on improving the lot of the people by giving them better healthcare and education, instead of terribly corrupt freebies?”
