ILL-HEALTH TEMPLES OF CARE AND FALLEN ANGELS OF CURE

Street play by Don Bosco Navajeevan,Vizag

Don Bosco Navajeevan has conducted a street play to educate the society near Beach School at Jalaripeta. The theme of the program was the “Greed and the medical malpractices of Corporate Hospitals”. Don Bosco chose Jalaripet, to stage this show as it is a hub of seven slums, an area with maximum number of people who paid the price of their ignorance and illiteracy.  Navajeevan children, who are part of this slum, practiced the entire program and dragged the attention of the people about the greed and the medical malpractices in the health sector.

Unfortunately, today, the reality is different and in some cases tragic. ‘Success’ no longer corresponds to an individual doctor’s reputation or ability; it has transformed into an intangible adjective abused by some corporate hospitals that treat patients as revenue generating clumps of tissue to be pricked, prodded and cut open at the slightest pretext. Why on earth should a regular cough require an MRI or an ultrasound? However, when goals shift from honest treatment to cold revenue targets, unnecessary intervention becomes the norm.

Doctors at prestigious branded hospitals routinely demand extensive blood tests and scans for a lot of their patients, this includes exorbitant charges, deficiency in service(s) and not following the standard treatment protocols that resulted in compromised patient safety as well as concerns about transparency and accountability in healthcare costs. The same diagnostic findings will be corroborated a dozen times, and finally an array of invasive options will be provided to the patient, like a menu card where perhaps non-invasive options might have been safer and quicker.

Can we dream of Hospitals which are temples of Care and doctors who are angels of Cure. This small street play was very much appreciated and applauded by the audience both the ignorant and the elite.