Silently Watching Cricket

India is a country where everything is "chalta hai".Our history of thousands of years is full of black swan events.It is therefore no wonder that we comfortably replace our national sport hockey with the de facto national sport of cricket--one which is more unpredictable that our Sensex or the future of our governments.

Ever since AB Vajpayee & Co. conducted the nuclear tests in Pokhran and effectively ended the possibility of 4th Indo Pak war,cricket has become the battlefield for both the nations.An Indo Pak match is never a match played by 22 players from 2 countries.Its a war played by 1.5 billion people from both the countries

Every Indian from the 5 year old chintu to the 75 year old "dadima" plays a part in this war

As yesterdays semif final match between the two arch rivals was about to begin ,warnings were thrown on Facebook to ensure that XYZ person did not enter the common room of hostel,lest he spoil the party like he did in India England encounter earlier...this was too big an occasion to let a person spoil the party.During the match a superstitious friend o wouldnt allow us to change positions,lest Afridi send the ball for a six.As I saw the match and the audience ,it seemed that Allah,Guru Nanak ,Ram and Christs prayer inboxes would be filled with only one request...get Pakistan out before its too late.

As the match ended ,it seemed a job well done...prayers seemed answered,the odd superstition seemed to have worked and yes the players played well too.However,India is a cynical naion .There were the usual crowd of doubters.."the match was fixed..I told you so" said one of them .During the 24th over,we got a message.."The match is fixed ..from 25th over Pakistan collapse would start"..the "satta players" shifted the focus from Sensex to the match score.And then there are those who drubbed the event as nothing more than another no use event created by television companies for their profit

Fixed or not fixed..big event or small event..the way cricket stirs passion in our country and unites the divided people,one does wonder if it wouldn't be a bad idea to declare cricket the national religion and Sachin ,the national God.Outrageous..stupidity..some of us might shout.However,looking at hindsight cricket has played its part in our 9% plus growth rate .Cricket has provided an outlet for the excessive energies of Indians.The unpredictables of cricket has helped Indians cope with the faliure of Indian State in many areas and always look at positive side.It has provided us inspiration to fight till the end.It has fueled among us the passion to succeed.The 1983 victory provided millions with the hope --we can..and this time if we win the cup....it will provide us the confidence to enter the middle over of Indian growth story with the belief ..we are winnning

Happy Blogging

Killer Doctors

If you had been a student at IIT Kharagpur and been to the state subsidized BC Roy Hospital,you would know it as a rule that an antibiotic,an expensive cough syrup or an expensive injection would be referred irrespective of your illness ,just to ensure that the doctor has his cut from next door chemist shop.At the beginning of this new decade, while our GDP continues to grow at more than 9% per annum,a large majority of Indian middle and lower class do not have access to quality health care.

When I refer to poor quality healthcare,I am not only referring to government hospitals where "no treatment" is guaranteed but also the new age private hospitals with their marble floored receptions and air conditioned wards that have taken the medical and healthcare industry to ridiculously low moral and ethical standards

If you are not a high powered politicians ,or do not have the right network to pull the necessary strings ,chances are your doctor will recommend you the tests ,medicines and treatment which might not cure you but would definitely inflate your bill to the size of your wallet.Horror stories going in air range from the speculative ones like targets given to cardiologists for monthly by pass surgeries to the confirmed ones like doctors recommending diagnostic tests just to pocket heft commissions.The situation has become so bad that the average Indian prays that he does not have to pay visit to the doctor "GOD" or his holy temple-the "hospital".

One of the most basic reasons of the current horror situation is the rising input costs for doctors and hospitals.The average cost of medical education at a private college in India runs to about Rs 20 lakhs over a 7 year period ,starting with 5 years of medical graduation (Rs 2 lakhs pa) and another 2 years of post graduation (Rs 4.5 lpa).Add to it the usual cost a student spends on preparing for medical entrance exams (Rs 2 lpa) and we are looking at a business with a long pay back period.While before liberalization ,medical education was mostly a state affairs and fees kept low and affordable,after education reforms ,private institutes mushroomed in across the country.Their was always ample demand for doctors in a country of 1 billions people and seeing the skewed demand supply ratio just helped increase the fees to astronomical levels.Besides,the healthcare education industry being unimaginative rely on student fees as a major source of revenue.The solution to all these problems is of course multi faceted.Colleges should look at tapping alternate sources of revenue ranging from consultancy fees to setting up sustainable rural health programme.Also more reforms need to be introduced to encourage private players to invest in medical education.Further ,the government can provide a fixed cash subsidy to all medical students in country

A second and most important factor that has led to the corruption of the noble profession in the country is the growing nexus between doctors ,pharmaceutical companies and diagnostic centres.Many multinational drug companies are known to provide commissions to doctors directly from their balance sheets and register them as marketing expenses.The laws like always are there to be broken by the rich and powerful medical and pharma lobby.The average cutthat a doctor can make by recommending patients to a particular diagnostic center can vary from 20-50% depending on test and no. of patients referred by the doctor.While nobody should deny medicine is business but at same time we need to form a framework which allows profits and real patient care to co exist before its too late.

Many social thinkers have contended creating stricter laws to ban such profit sharing arrangements..A pragmatic view would further help us realize any law so erected would be circumvented and made mockery of by the corrupt system.Moreover,if numerous other professions like law,travel and even business consultancy can benefit from the comission system,why not healthcare?A better solution would be to intoduce a new Prevention of Patient abuse act and make following inclusions in that:

• Establishment of separate fast track courts for medical legal judges to assure faster and time bound trials
• Treatment of medical negligence as a criminal act,when some person trusts you with his life being negligent is being criminal.Any doctor who can be negligent must be filtered out of the system
• Impose harsh punishment on doctors recommending unnecesary treatment or tests to their patients including but not limited to licence cancellation
• Establishing rating agencies ,that rate various hospitals and doctors in the country.This would help self regulation by industry
• Increase compensation to be awarded to patients in case of negligence by treating any negligent activity as a criminal act

The current legal system is clearly inadequate.Currently ,the courts rule only 28-40% cases in favor of patients at a speed which is characteristic of Indian judiciary.As a result,most doctors have never even felt the fear of litigation and licence cancellation is an act no doctor even thinks of even in his worse fear

While the world over ,politicians and legal thinkers are focusing on reducing healthcare costs what seems to have become more important now is to bring back the ethics of noble profession before its too late and the society forgets the difference between goons and doctors

I hope at least one doctor reads this article and understands and spreads the message intended.

Happy Blogging