Jeevan se mukti!

The ICU at this 300-bed hospital is yet to be functional, though it was inaugurated six months ago. The hospital is waiting for equipment! Last year, a newborn was eaten by rats after slipping and falling down at night. For the full text, which appeared in the TOI, click here

This is the ESI, that was once described by none less than the veteran trade unionist and MP, Mr Gurudas Dasgupta, as the parasite that lives off the sweat of the blue-collared worker. It doesn't seem to have changed one bit. However, it has been advertising heavily of recent (including on TV) promising "chinta se mukti", and is also supposedly poised to start medical colleges across the country, if you please!

The Insurance part of the ESI scheme is perhaps a useful one, and can be continued after professionalising. However, the healthcare part is a disaster, far worse than the regular government hospitals, and needs to be closed down totally. Check this

In response to a survey conducted by a leading daily, a few months back, with a view to finding solutions to the wide-scale corruption plaguing government hospitals, a significant percentage of the respondents had suggested privatisation as a possible way out. Particularly in an area like healthcare, however, a check against unhealthy practices could perhaps be provided by strengthening the NGO/ missionary institutions in the field, like St Johns, St Martha’s, St Philomena’s, Chinmaya, Ghousia, Rotary Trusts, etc, who all seem to be doing excellent work. The government would do well to hand-over the Victoria, Vanivilas, Bowring as well as all the ESI hospitals and dispensaries, to these institutions. May be a supervisory/ regulatory authority could be simultaneously instituted to oversee all the related functions, while also scrapping the ministry. Check this