Prof Javed Mughal
Recently an episode took place in GMC Jammu where a doctor is alleged to have been reprimanded by the Minister of Health and Medical Education. What exactly is the fact of the matter I don’t know but at the same I have no reason to believe in the media reports, the common public, the anguished doctors’ community and the Minister too because to me the common people are always emotional, the media is now-a-days lopsided, the doctors are angry and biased out of professional allegiance and Health Minister is a headstrong and obstinate as is all the range now-a-days but I am not sure since I have never had a chance to meet him or talk to him face to face. Hence none is to be taken for guaranteed. Even then I wish to say that in case the allegations leveled against the Minister are true, his gestures with the doctor can never be appreciated since the Service Rule Book has all the required provisions and procedures envisaged in its gamut to punish any employee without using the disgraceful and abusive language; rather the later is strictly prohibited. In case the doctor was at wrong, she deserved to be stringently punished under rules and if the Minister has displayed an impertinent behaviour towards her, he must also be taken to the books. The point is that one who is at fault must not be spared. But to the best of the common perception of the masses, Chaudhary Lal Singh is a straightforward person and an honest Minister who has always thought and done for the betterment of the patients only -especially the poor ones. Excepting his lingual and communicative harshness, which he actually does not mean, he does everything not for his personal gains but for the people who have always suffered, are suffering and shall continue to suffer even in future, if not checked well in time. When earlier he was the Minister of the same department during the NC-Congress Government, he made an outstanding contribution to the streamlining of the medical department. What to speak of the doctors even the government’s attitude had never been cooperative and encouraging towards Chaudhary Lal Singh simply because he was an upright and honest supremo who cut to the size all the arrogant doctors, running practices during official timings to mint money at the cost of the helplessness of the patients. That is why when he shut all the windows of corruption on the Government during NC-Congress regime, he was, as a part of the planned collusion, sent to the center so that the then Government in complicity with the corrupt system could enjoy at its best in the state. There is of-course, a dissonance between the intentions and the actions of Chaudhary Lal Singh but on the whole his fair and square administration and his commendable style of working can not be called in question. With the adoption of the proper modus operandi avoiding all objectionable postures, he must keep up tightening the nuts and bolts of all those who make a mockery of their profession and neglect their duties or display the signs of arrogance in such a pious and sensitive department where countless lives are at stake round the clock. My heart sinks down in despair when I look at the tenure of some of the other Health Ministers who used this department as a minting machine and nothing else so much so that one of these Health Ministers left a stigma on the face of this portfolio by getting entangled with a lady over a cup of ‘Kashmiri Qahwa’. Do we need such Ministers with love-making habits or with the palms to be greased or we should stand by the people like Chaudhary Lal Singh who is delivering excellently to his people? This point is very important to be considered. Our state is in dire need of the iron men like Mr. Singh so that the needful can be done at the right time.
Can we forget patients dying in the corridors of the hospitals without timely medication and routine negligence of the doctors? Should we forgive those doctors who are seen in their privy clinics minting money during official hours leaving behind many helpless patients looking forward to the pills from the hospitals because they have no money with them? Is Chaudhary Lal Singh doing all this for his own benefits? He is minister and if he wants, he can make a dozen doctors stand at his gate waiting for his orders but let us understand that he is doing nothing of the sort. He is primarily concerned with his patients only. Yes, we can ask him to change the tool of punishment and I personally appeal to him to replace the sword with the pen to punish the culprits since “pen is mightier than sword”. In rural areas the doctors are playing with the life of the people. If we look back to the obnoxious history of this medical department spreading over the last ten years, we must be sure to come across deaths in the labour rooms, deaths for want of timely medication, deaths in the operation theatres and deaths due to over or wrong medication and the point of concern is that none of the culprit doctors have been punished at all. One day I visited Medical College Jammu to see the father of my colleague. The moment I entered into the emergency zone, I saw a patient seemingly from outside the state wriggling and writhing in pains demanding for immediate oxygen. I watched for a little while and, surprised and shocked at the inefficiency of the hospital administration, sneaked into the cabin where a team of young doctors was sitting. I kept on requesting them to come and administer oxygen to the patient but they delayed to the death of the poor one after half an hour just in front of my eyes. It sent across a galvanic shock through my spine and I stopped believing in the fidelity of many of these doctors since then. Similarly I stand witness to the deaths of many patients under the poor and negligent supervision of the doctors in rural hospitals, we cried but none heard. The medicines worth lacs of rupees are either wasted or black marketed but not allowed to reach to the patients at any cost. The sanitary conditions of the hospitals are deplorable and stinking atmosphere is openly allowed to prevail in the medical wards in most of the district and sub-district hospitals. Go and see the unhygienic Super-Specialty Hospital at Jammu and you will find it no better than a cow-shed.
In suburban areas, the poor and innocent patients often fall a prey to the tricky and negligent doctors but nobody bothers because things are settled and the matters are hushed up before coming to the lime light. Innocence, poverty and vulnerability of the patients is exploited and cashed on. The carelessness, the arrogance, the materialistic habits, all combined together, are gripping the entire medical department and most of the doctors have turned out be the traffickers of the Vanity Fair. The matter is very serious and it has to be taken up by the Government very honestly and the current Health Minister has to be supported and encouraged with a little direction to change his style of doing the things. Let Chaudhary Lal Singh continue for the next whole tenure, and we shall all find a positive difference in the functioning of this eroding department.
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