This post is an entry for Indiblogger’s How does modern health care touch lives? Contest in association with Apollo Hospitals.
I was eight and I cut my finger with a knife like tool. What next? It was time for tetanus injection. When I heard I was being taken to the doctor, I began to look for all accessible places inside-outside the house where I could hide myself. Newys, the hide-out did not save me for long, I was caught and taken to the family doctor who lived in the next block. Very soon the unwanted happened.
Ouuch!! The injection pained a lot! I cried and shouted. And I had really wished and prayed for less painful injections. The medical science heard my prayers and now the pain caused by injections has almost become negligible and the best part the progress has been made with my growing fear for the needle-like prick. I do cry but not much.
It actually affects me in my daily life because I have been anemic for all my life and thus the hemoglobin test has become a part and parcel of my life. Every three months, I go through the ordeal and I know how the prick feels now and how painful the injection used to be a few years back. Health Care has definitely become Modern in all senses.
Average Life expectancy at the beginning of the 20th century was 47.3 years. Now, in 21st century, the number has increased to 77.85 years. Medical science has advanced rapidly over the last decades. In the mid-20th century, hundreds of thousands of children were struck by Polio every year. Now that we have polio vaccines, anti-polio drive is in full swing in our country and it has been eliminated from most of the world. Chicken pox and diphtheria are also devastating diseases that have been managed with vaccines in the 20th century.
Awesome Achievements:
Smallpox has been erased from the globe.
Fewer children die due to respiratory illness and maternal health has improved too.
A 38-year-old patient of Crohn’s Disease (a rarest of rare disease), was operated by Indian doctors wherein his intestine was connected to the urinary bladder.
Another genetic and rare disease is called mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS). MPS is part of a group of 45 rare, genetic disorders called lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs). India has 8-10 centers of excellence for the management & treatment of LSDs. Six-eight centers have diagnostic capabilities as well.
Multi-organ failures are being treated. Several delicate organs have been transplanted.
Artificial limbs, C-sections, IVF, Autopsy, Bypass-surgery —- they have all become so common and have given options to everyone for whom life was posing difficult at one instance. Modern healthcare has brought smiles on their faces.
The Truth is ….
The affluent people who have the means to go anywhere in the world to get health care comprise of 1 to 5 per cent of the population. It does not do anything for the vast population. In fact this is accepted by the rich too. Yuvraj Singh writes in his book- Test of Life that since he had a strong financial background and is a star player, there were many hands to save him and protect him but the predicament of those who do not even get rightly diagnosed with cancer or worse cannot afford it, is simple unimaginable.
Modern health care no doubt has grown leaps and bounds but there’s more to achieve because until a large population takes benefit from it, it still doesn’t make a achievement.
There’s More to do…
- India has a huge burden because of the size of its population and therefore this has been an acute issue. There is a need to invest in new health-care models to cater to the needs of our large population and keep them healthy.
- Different Pharma Companies should research to provide Newer, Safer and Cheap Medicines and above all they must be made affordable for all.
- More world class clinical pathology laboratory should be established.
- A new model, to groom, sustain mid-size hospitals is needed. The aim should be to assist, manage and partner with a network of health care establishments in the small and mid size range, especially to cater to the needs of all economic strata’s of the society.
- Most of our countrymen do not have access to a health-care system because the public sector is far behind the private sector in this field and the private sector is costly. In the modern day, health care must reach all and the private sector has to come forward for this.
Happy Reading!!!
Happy Blogging !!!
You can find more about the cutting edge work done by Apollo Hospitals here: http://www.apollohospitals.com/cutting-edge.php
Well said Manjulika! All the best for the contest 🙂
Thanks Anupam..
wonderful read !! very factual !No wrapping up in flowery words .. the fact is not all of us are Yuvraj Singh !! Absolute love for the post ! What about rural India ? Till meds are available to all .. its a gimmick that modern healthcare has done wonders. Its only for the ones who can buy life !
All the very best for the contest!
@My Say– Thanks for the appreciation and agreeing with me on this… When I actually sat down to think of the modern care, I was only reminded of the commercialization and the rising rates of the doctors and tests.. And, that we as middle class are cribbing about it, so the plight of the poor is beyond imagination.. So when most of us cant use the advancements, what is the fun of having them..
Thanks Gayatri… glad u agree with it 🙂
Absolutely, here in India, everybody is busy making money out of this noble profession. Truly said!
Good luck! 🙂