Editor,
This is with reference to your socially relevant editorial, ‘When the shoe is on the other foot’, (ST March 23, 2018). I wish to share my experience at NEIGRIHMS, particularly one of the issues which you have chosen to highlight. It was actually the experience of a friend of mine who had taken a relative for treatment to NEIGRIHMS. After waiting for a considerable number of days, the appointed date of surgery approached and he took the patient, only to be told that his surgery would be postponed as the new director had changed the rules pertaining to the vacation availed by the faculty. I offered to investigate and having the inclination to use the RTI Act for social upliftment, I got involved. I have been able to obtain information about vacation rules in different central government institutions and what has transpired in NEIGRIHMS (The RTI copies are attached with this mail).
Central government teaching institutions like AIIMS, PGIMER, JIPMER, etc. allow their faculty members to avail 39 days of vacation each year, being split into summer and winter. There are two slots, of which each department has to allow faculty to go on vacation without affecting the clinical and teaching work. In NEIGRIHMS due to the paucity of faculty in most departments, the faculty were allowed to avail vacation at a time of their convenience, so as to avoid hampering the hospital and college work. However, the new Director was in a hurry to implement the rules as followed in JIPMER and issued the new rules in May 2017 for the vacation in June 2017. This last minute change of rules prompted the HOD of Anaesthesiology to issue a circular (copy attached) to all departments and the medical superintendent stating that the routine OT will be curtailed due to some faculty proceeding on vacation. There was approximately 30 percent reduction in the number of Operation theatres. I’m told that in each theatre several surgeries may be performed in a day, hence a lot of patients were affected.
This last minute change led to hardship for several patients, like my friend. The doctors had expressed their inability, as some of them met the Director and the Medical Superintendent but got no respite despite their written complaints. This happened again in December 2017 with greater intensity, when, instead of about 4 routine operation theatres functioning a day, only three were functional. This was again communicated to Departments concerned just a couple of days prior to the vacation, throwing the OT schedules haywire. The winter vacation lasted for two 30 day slots and hence the services were affected for 60 days.
An RTI query to AIIMS, on which NEIGRIHMS is modelled, revealed that during vacation the OT schedule is not altered. Whereas here you can see a separate ‘vacation routine OT schedule’ is issued. Also, the authority to curtail OT time rests with the faculty in charge of the OT, whereas in NEIGRIHMS, the HOD anesthesiology unilaterally changed the OT functioning.
Is this not a banana republic, wherein a Department can curb its functions at will (or whim)? If the Director wanted to change rules it should have been done after checking the ground realities and in consultation with the faculty. I doubt if this was done. Several patients, like my friend, travel from outside the state, through difficult terrain, to reach NEIGRIHMS, spending several thousand rupees on travel and accommodation. Such disregard for patients has brought disrepute to the Institution. Unfortunately, since they have no other options they have to quietly endure all this arbitrariness. They don’t want to complain, like my friend. I’m really glad that you are taking up this socially important issue and hope more patients don’t suffer in the subsequent vacations.
Yours etc.,
Name withheld on request
Essence of Good Friday
Editor,
In the article, “What is Good Friday all about?” (ST, March 30, 2018), B.J. Syiemlieh rightly said, “Jesus’ death on the cross which is commemorated on Good Friday is a celebration of his act of self emptying to be a blessing to others without any expectation of a reward or a pay back.” Suffering and death of Jesus on the cross on Good Friday was not in his own personal interests. It was a sacrifice in the best interests of our evolution so that we could become more conscious. It was, as it were, for the resurrection of divinity in us from its oblivion of sleep. The execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a church leader, who had to give his life for opposing Hitler, was another such crucifixion for the same cause.
Interestingly, January 30, 1948 was indeed a Friday. This day is observed as a Martyrs’ Day in our country. Nevertheless, it is another Good Friday. On January 28, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi had said, “If I am to die by the bullet of a mad man, I must do so smiling. God must be in my heart and on my lips. And if anything happens, you are not to shed a single tear.”
On the day of Mahatma’s crucifixion, he walked up to a prayer mandap. At that time, a man came before Gandhiji. The man offered pranam by bending his body at a distance of less than two yards. Gandhiji returned the salute. The man remarked, “You are late today for the prayer.” Gandhiji smiled and replied, “Yes, I am.” But at that moment the man pulled out a revolver and fired three shots from point-blank range. The bullets pierced the frail body of the great leader. Gandhiji collapsed. The assassin was seized by the people who had come to attend the prayer.
Thus, another crucifixion was staged on another Friday. The Good Friday of January 30, 1948 halted the juggernaut of religious fanaticism as it made people realize the inherent danger of it. As a matter of fact, such Good Fridays made our evolution from brutality to humanity possible. We still have miles to go but past progress from primitive society to feudalism to police state capitalism to modern welfare states confirms that ours is an ascending evolution. However, Jesus is still to suffer on the cross to get us going.
Thanking you,
Yours etc.,
Sujit De,