Being socially distant, private, shut up indoors, and working from home had its perks during the lockdowns and afterward, as knocking out these dairy entries on my laptop was one such saving grace for me.Nearly two years on, the war on the novel Coronavirus is not over yet. At the very least, the initial shock of being friendless and without biryani, irani chai, and Osmania biscuits, is slowly wearing off. A plague on their houses, who brought this virus into our midst.
The following are the diary scratchings of what otherwise might be mundane aspects of life as we lived through 2020/'21, most likely our worst annus horribilis.
Open Medical Looting!:
These are the days of looting. The name of the game is medical looting.
This does not include the cost of overpriced critical medicines, oxygen services, ventilators, blood transfusions, and private doctor consultations throughout the hospital stay. According to various newspaper and television reports, such rogue hospitals and their affiliated doctors have shamelessly looted the helpless patients admitted for Covid-19 treatment at their facility. The GO (government order) prescribing nominal rates for treatment - was promptly tossed into the dustbin! Nobody gives a rat’s backside.
Imagine the plight of a person offered unconscionable billings to the tune of Rs. 15 to 20 lakhs! If two members of the same family get admitted to the hospital for treatment, the total bill will hit the roof! - upwards of Rs. 30 lakhs! If you, however, do survive Covid-19, you will almost certainly die of a heart attack while footing the bill!
Hospitals are merciless during this pandemic. People's savings and credit have been ruined by their rampant overcharging, costing them lakhs of rupees to get well! The entire family system is being thrown into a state of perpetual limbo, unsure when or if the situation will get resolved. Or whether they will regain the financial position they had before Covid dealt them a cruel blow remains uncertain. (Be prepared to fall into poverty due to catastrophic healthcare costs in our country.)
It's difficult to understand how the medical fraternity: hospital administrators, owners, nurses, healthcare workers, and specialist doctors allow their conscience or moral feelings to win when they see their patients (and their attendants) forced to pay exorbitant bills through their noses. Pity isn't the right word, but the medical profession as a whole has lost my trust and respect.
Doctors have become profiteering businessmen, concerned with making a profit apart from being well compensated for their profession. Thanks to the corporatized medical-industrial complex, Big Pharma breathing down their necks all the time, doctors are not doctors anymore. It's a tragedy of human history. Considering what is happening with Coronavirus patients, it appears that doctors have lost control of their profession. They do not appear to be as compassionate, empathetic, or sensitive to patients' needs as they once were. Although not all doctors are morally bankrupt or lack ethical standards, a significant number of them are.
[While we are aware that some doctors and private hospitals are engaged in rampant looting, we still regard them and other healthcare professionals as our society’s strongest pillars. True to their noble profession, they put their lives in danger by working for up to 24 hours at a stretch, seven days a week, doing double and triple shifts or more. Doctors, as exceptional caregivers, have become synonymous with frontline soldiers, heroes stronger than Hulk or Iron Man, irrespective of all great difficulties, in the global battle against the Coronavirus Pandemic. These honours are very well-deserved by the doctors who have made significant sacrifices for their countrymen. I applaud them.]
Local private hospitals are in unholy collusion with medical store salesperson(s) or black-marketing anti-socials, cheats, and fraudsters in this frenzy of looting desperate patients and their families. It's a travesty.
Some medical practitioners (Doctors, of all lifesavers) who we look up to as true heroes, not just as demi-Gods but also as next only to God, have broken their sacred Hippocratic Oath and engaged in unethical malpractices. They're the type that makes them loot (not earn) a lot of money from sick patients admitted to hospitals for viral infection treatment. It's a shame, a disgrace, that they’re able to accomplish this by striking deals with some equally culpable private hospitals. Easy money!
Some private corporate hospitals have no trouble swindling large sums of money from sick, ailing patients and their families in the name of providing good treatment. Post looting, these ‘specialty' medical looters call up property contractors and negotiate deals to add another floor to their (bhoot!) bunglas, add more utility (futility!) rooms to it, or completely remodel or renovate their flat. While that takes time, why not spend the loot on vehicles far more luxurious than the one that was already starting to resemble low-class crap? Or even better, open a new clinic using the tainted ill-fated money purloined from the patients who died or were miraculously saved by the grace of God but have lost everything.
- June to August 2021
[That said, Doctors will always be epitomes of medical expertise and excellence to patients and the communities. Given their stature as next only to God as life-givers and savers, the work of doctors, nurses, including all medical health co-workers, is held in high esteem. Doctors are still ‘a paragon of doctorly virtue,’ and their profession is the noblest in the world. A few bad apples may bring a bad name to their medical fraternity because of their misplaced greed, but we continue to look up to the good doctors with nothing but deep gratitude.]
- Saturday, 25 September 2021
A Dolo 650 Mg tablet, which is used to treat fever, pain, and aches, was charged at Rs. 30 to 40 apiece, despite the fact that a strip of 15 tablets costs only Rs. 30 in the market! Making hay while the sun shines, some private hospitals and medical shops have exposed an utterly ugly face!
Many hospitals, also known as health care institutions, providers, or 'caregivers,' have violated humanitarian values. Their ostensibly inherent values like patient-centeredness, timeliness, and efficiency have all gone to the dogs! Regrettably, all the good it could have brought to mind has gone from bad to worse, culminating in disgrace.
- Thursday, 30 September 2021
A Sense of Nostalgia:
Thank goodness my sense of nostalgia has taught me to appreciate silence and loneliness. I lend a sympathetic ear to friends, family, and acquaintances whenever the opportunity arises. I do, indeed. If some of them don’t respond thoughtfully in return when I ask, it’s just fine. Life is not the same for everyone.
I gave up on trying to be heard a long time ago. It isn’t worth it. So I take things as they come without overthinking them. Now that the coronavirus is crawling on its way out, I’ve started making plans to meet a friend for lunch, go for long walks to nowhere in particular, get a haircut on time, shave regularly, and do some such ordinarily routine stuff. And be content like a kid.
...and then I went and washed my hands for the third time with Dettol liquid hand wash.
- Thursday, 04 November 2021
I try to be productive in my daily life, take creative risks in my work, avoid burning on my own coals or stoking my own fires, and set myself free (I believe I was free the last time I checked, but I think I was mistaken). It makes no difference if my plans get cancelled outright or how productive I am. It’s enough for me to have them: something to look forward to day after day, week after week, year after year. That’s how I’ve been feeling lately.
Let us all give up our selfish and fast-paced ways of life in favour of slowing down and savouring each moment.
- Slow down and soak it up
- Appreciate life more
- Boost your sense of wonder in life
- Keep yourself safe
- Take the appropriate precautions
- Share Biryani
- Sunday, 28 November 2021
Deadly Omicron Virus:
- Tuesday, 30 November 2021
The End.
By Arindam Moulick
End of part 2 of 2