Mouth to Mouth- A doctor's blog

Khichan  is a small village located in the district of Jodhpur, Rajasthan. Being a village in the arid landscape, it does not host the majestic sand dunes nor does it have any imperial ruins. All the village has are a few ‘feeding grounds’ and a whole lot of very dedicated folks!  Feeding grounds for birds. Every morning from the end of November to March, the people of  K hichan  are woken up by the ‘ krok-krok ’ calls of the demoiselle cranes. The Demoiselle crane is a winter migrant to India. They migrate from the colder countries of Mongolia and Russia during their winters to enjoy the complacent winters of ours. In no time, the silent morning wanes off and all you can see are thousands of chirping birds in the sky. But why only this village? Furthermore, why, in the feeding grounds situated right in the centre of the village, do the birds come and eat? The answer is expressed by any villager proudly. It’s all because of them. The people of  K h...

THE VALUE OF  FREE  IN INDIAN MEDICAL PRACTICE [PART 2] The second thing which I cannot ignore to mention is the addiction of many patients towards cough syrup. Yes, you read it correctly, ‘Addiction’ to ‘cough syrup’! At Pote hospital, we give this cough syrup for free. And being free comes with its obvious implications. People absolutely abuse this medication. It is dispensed in the patient’s plastic bottles from the huge cans the hospital receives. During the beginning of my posting at Pote hospital, I used to examine the respiratory system of all the patients with respiratory complaints in great detail. I used to see the same patients coming again and again, with the same complaints, with their chest absolutely clear, taking/demanding the same medication, cough syrup. I knew what I had to prescribe, even before taking the history and doing the examination, just by looking at the empty plastic bottle with the patient. During the end of the posting, I tried to change...

THE VALUE OF FREE IN INDIAN MEDICAL PRACTICE [PART 1] To the people who don’t know me, I am a recently passed MBBS doctor from the very famous Bharati Vidyapeeth Medical College in Pune, India. To those who are reading this article being extremely skeptical, you are extremely right in being so. In this article I am going to try to present the reality based on my (not so good) experiences in an Urban Health Centre named ‘Shivshankar Pote Hospital’ in Padmavati, Pune. To the people who are thinking that I am an extremely pessimistic person, I am not. Instead I like to call myself ‘Pragmatic’, although I am not even that, but definitely not pessimistic. During the time I spent in Pote Hospital, I met and spoke with many people. People of different age groups, different educational backgrounds, different religions, but mostly of the lower socio-economic strata. The next sentence written is very important. Almost 70% of the patients were cooperative, ready to listen to the a...