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———- Forwarded message ———- From: Avtar Nehru <av.nehru@gmail.com> Date: Sun, Jun 8, 2014 at 2:10 PM Subject: A suggestion from a concerned citizen To: drhrshvardhan@gmail.com, dr.harshvardhan@nic.in Cc: director.aiims@gmail.com

Dr Harsh Vardhan
Hon’ble Union Minister for Health & Family Welfare

Dear Sir,

Your appointment as the country’s health minister has raised great hope for me like millions of our countrymen and you’re bang on knowledge of the challenges our healthcare system is faced with. It is after a long that a person who understands the health imperatives is at the right place. Your keen interest in making AIIMS a green hospital and talks of it getting more space is welcome.   My hope is, the keen interest you are showing in the affairs of the country’s premier medical institution (AIIMS) also translates in a blessing for the common man, who is virtually battles it out to get him/herself treated at this popular  hospital or for his or her near/dear one on a daily basis. The world class competency levels that AIIMS doctors possess and have maintained is the main draw for thousands of patients seeking alleviation of suffering from diseases & disorders. And practically, this nice feeling ends with doctors. What an OPD patient has to undergo is unimaginable nightmare, an experience s/he would never want hadn’t it been for that doctor. One task takes your whole day. There is no facility to sit outside OPD clinics. You have to stand for hours. There is no prioritization. Whether you’re old, crippled by disease, child or woman, it makes no difference. Technology use is minimal. The security guards and administrative staff at best abusive and stressed have turned into pimps. If  you go there in disguise and  manage to spent a few hours in disguise, you’ll yourself  come to know a thousand heart breaking scenes from the corridors of buildings housing OPDs. All patients and their wards report in the early morning even if their turn comes in the afternoon and this is a major cause of overcrowding. A few tokenism measures have been done without changing the ground situation. You don’t get a wheel chair in most cases most of the times.  The list is endless. Free rides from parking site to hospital is so erratic that if you park your vehicle, 90% chances are you have to walk back to take your vehicle. Here is a big opportunity to transform horrific patient experience and turn AIIMS truly citizen friendly and world class in all respects.

One more point, I want to raise is that a recent survey report by PHFI found that country’s medical colleges fare poorly on use of ICT and other technological use. In context of AIIMS, if connected with telemedicine to other hospitals, will help a great deal.  It is astonishing to see that the line of treatment of most other hospitals and doctors even of the central government differs from AIIMS in most cases. This raises a question mark in competency of most doctors in these hospitals. It won’t be a bad idea if they are compulsorily made to watch through ICT devices how clinicians in AIIMS treat and implement some of these practices. The core healthcare delivery in this country is suffering not as much due to less number of doctors but lack of good doctors practically outside the AIIMS.

Hope, you’ll get some time to reflect on it.

Best Regards,
Avtar Nehru


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