Reflections

It is commonly felt that hospitalization is the biggest financial burden that can befall a household. In many cases, poor people are financially crippled by a single hospitalization episode with the costs involved, loss of time at work and other costs( transportation, bribes and so on ) that they have to bear. However a new study suggests that so called minor illness episodes are more likely to cause an unacceptable burden to poor households in India. The study in question was published in the Indian Journal of Medical Research in April this year.The study has provided information in what is a very poorly researched field.I will summarize some of the principal conclusions. It is often claimed that the poorer parts of our population are sustained by indigenous medical practitioners. If this study is to be believed nothing is further from the truth. Just 3.2 % of the expenditure was made for these systems of medicine. While this may be due to the lower costs of indigenous therapy, t...

Yesterday I attended function held to inaugurate a new Hospital in Jalpaiguri, the district town of the eponymous district, about 40 kilometres from Siliguri. The road is execrable, many parts resembling ploughed fields rather than the State Highway it is supposed to be. And the government wants investment in North Bengal! Anyway let’s not chase that rabbit but come back to what I was saying. The function started about 40 minutes late, inevitably as the organizers had invited the local MP and one nondescript minister of the West Bengal Government. There were the inevitable speeches; I noticed with some amusement that a Ramakrishna Mission monk who inaugurated the function could talk effortlessly for ten minutes saying nothing in particular as well as any politician! The local MP stood up to speak. She informed us, without batting an eyelid that the Government run health service is the best in West Bengal among all the states of India. Apparently 73% people avail the services and “most...