Cooperate for Medical Emergencies

In recent news IIT Kharagpur student died on the way to hospital, Railways could not provide first aid to people injured in local trains in Bombay and a baby got stolen from Sion Hospital.

Every time something like this happens people come down heavily on city administration or hospital staff and facilities. Bombay Bombay High Court has ordered the railways to set up a First Aid Center on platforms. Students and administration across all IITs are demanding best of the medical facilities on the campuses. This does not make any sense considering the usage and worth to expenditure ratio. A similar hospital set up outside IIT would cater to at least hundreds of people. Tax payers money would be better utilized elsewhere. Inside IIT the hospital facilities and equipments will rot for want of patients, which are hardly a few dozen per week.

What we need to understand is that our socio-economic system is completely flawed. Government, local administration and hospitals can do only so much. While consumers are all gung-ho about their rights, nobody talks of their duties to their fellow consumers. Leave aside coordination and help amongst themselves, there is not respect for each other in the minds of consumers and general public. The truth is that doctors in public or railway hospitals are overworked and under-paid leading to a general sense of dissatisfaction and demoralization.

Consumer responsibility is the only answer to this stalemate between the medical profession and the citizens. The crowds that visit our public hospitals at all times of the day are so large, that their management is a Herculean, if not impossible task. Self-help and mutual cooperation by consumers is hence the only answer to the maladies afflicting the scenario of rendering medical aid to citizens in distress. The earlier we realize this, the better.