A Change of Heart
Doctors need a change of heart, said a Daily Star headline yesterday in big italicised types. That the journal was not proposing to bring in practitioners of Christian Barnad's art but was meaning to say what the phrasal expression stands for figuratively, nobody was in any doubt about. But hospitals especially those run by the government and the experience of anyone having to run after a doctor do strongly suggest that short of Barnardian surgical intervention there will never be any change of heart among the healers in Bangladesh.
Even the smartest among our citizens would be puzzled to decide what to do in case of a bloody or serious burn injury accident. Even in cases where money is no problem. Rush her to hospital emergencies? The Daily Star story would very correctly advise against. Private hospitals? It would be quite a quiz to know which of these offers the right service. These are medically manned by personnel of the government health service and hospitals. They all need a call and some notice or time to respond to any need at the private hospitals. The best that these can do is offer some first aid-type care by a medical green-horn pending the arrival of the majestic ones from the government cadre. And the general rule is the visiting big shots come abiding strictly by a routine, not according to anyone's need.
Doctors enjoy here the benefit of the convention of being kept above criticism. Just as do the judges. How many people go abroad for treatment of even ordinary illnesses - not to say anything of serious ailments calling for repair of heart or kidney or staving off oncological degeneration? May be more than a hundred thousand. Specialised hospitals in nearby Calcutta thrive on never-ending processions of Bangladeshi patients. And far off Vellore or Madras or even Chandigarh share the patronage of the Bangladeshi patient. The moneyed ones, however, go to Bangkok and Singapore. Why?
The doctors can afford to care little as the number of the impecunious patient is so large and continues to grow so much all the time that they would not have to fear losing patients to others up to the day of judgment.
It is indeed a question of the heart. Most of our doctors do not put their heart into their job - professionally. Their heart is elsewhere, most likely lucre. And seldom it is on the sufferer that has come seeking his or her cure a thousand times more ardently than any beggar. Churning that craving from all of one's existence, does make a difference. Loss of one's own nation's confidence. A change of heart you need, indeed.
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