What’s the hell is going on in some private hospitals and nursing homes in West

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No one likes to go to a hospital, and that too, if it is a hospital in West Bengal, India. Dirt, callousness and corruption on the one hand compete with inexplicable expenses, excessive tests and over-treatment on the other. Government and private hospitals have their own respective approaches to the sick, and neither has yet inspired undying confidence in the hearts of the people of the state. Many of those who are able opt for treatment in other states. That is a pity not only for the doctors but also for the patients. But what is more alarming to the patients is that some private hospitals and nursing homes in Calcutta and the surrounding urban areas routinely employ as residential medical officers (RMO) people trained in homeopathy, unani or ayurvedic medicine and I think that fact that would be enough to frighten the most acutely ill patient off medical institutions in the city for ever. The RMO is supposed to be a figure of reassurance, a saviour in times of crisis. But untrained in allopathic medicine, he or she cannot administer it in a time of crisis since that is illegal and he or she is no better than a lay man as far as allopathic medicine is concerned. The result is that he or she acts as RMO on paper only; nothing fruitful can be expected from such a RMO as far as the emergency treatment of the patient is concerned. Thus the situation is really grave, on one hand, the patient is paying high for the care of allopathic doctors without knowing the actual reality and on the other hand, private hospitals and nursing homes are taking advantage of loophole in the law regarding the employment of RMOs. The law regarding the employment of RMOs allows anyone trained in any of the medical disciplines, traditional or modern, to be employed as RMO as long as the discipline matches that ‘for which the establishment is set up’. Since the license for a private hospital or nursing home does not require it to define its discipline, doctors from all disciplines are hired. Non- allopathic professionals can be paid less and be relied on not to leave for higher studies and the unfortunate patients, in spite of paying for allopathic professionals are in the hands of these ‘no better than quacks’ as far as allopathic treatment is concerned, though they may be experts in their respective fields. For the management, risking patients’ lives is obviously less of an issue, let alone the ethics of letting them believe they are paying for the care of allopathic doctors. I think that the health departments of both the state and the central governments would sincerely look into the matter. If any patient opts for treatment of his disease in homeopathy, unani or ayurvedic medicine, he has every right to seek it and it is the duty of a private hospital or nursing home to provide it accordingly. But this sort of cheating with lives of patients is not desired at all and should at once be curbed. As a responsible citizen of the country, I demand for an immediate action from the concerned authorities and I hope each and everyone would surely agree with me. Isn’t it?