A minor altercation between the guard on duty and a doctor of SKIMS took place over the trivial issue of the doctor parking his car at a particular place. The altercation turned into a row when others joined the issue and the row into strike of 400 doctors and 5000 other staff members of the prestigious institute. The result was great inconvenience to the patients, ineffectiveness of OPD reducing the number of patients to be admitted and leaving 3500 admitted patients to their fate. But wait, that was all tolerable willy-nilly. What is inhuman part of the story is the death of 33 patients in the hospital for want of treatment and attention because the doctors and the staff went on strike. Thus all this big but nonsensical drama happened at the cost of precious 33 lives.
What does this entire sordid story indicate? The first impression one gets is that the entire community of professional medicos and also the non-professional staff have perhaps lost the element of humanism that should be the guiding star of their professional life. A genuine doctor is supposed to be the embodiment of courtesy, patience, sobriety and intelligence. He is taken as the finest among the society. He has to prove his worth by his behaviour which is cantered around public dealing. Arrogance, insensitivity and inability to anticipate the consequences of an event especially when the entire institution gets involved do not do any justice to the fair name of a doctor.
The sordid event that shaped at SKIMS last week and the electrifying speed with which the contagion of strike spread among its thousands of employees shows that unionism and rivalry are at their worst among the various levels of employees and staff of this well-known institution. Has this leviathan become unwieldy and uncontrollable? Does it need overhauling and pincer operation? Is it become the cesspool of political intrigues and insinuations? So many questions arise when the functioning, administration and delivery system of this institution are brought under purview. There is hardly a day when an untoward happening does not take place here. There may be exchange of harsh words between the patients or caretakers and the doctor, between the administrative staff and the doctors on duty, between the contractors and the administrative staff and so forth and so on. There are innumerable complaints of mismanagement, corruption, illegal sale of medicines. There are a litany of complains by doctors about promotion, posting and other matters pertaining to service records etc. Yet it is called the most prestigious medical institute in the State. Machinery worth crores of rupees imported from abroad to make the hospital of super special standard is rusting either owing to non-use or for want of some spare parts not available locally. Corruption in offering contracts to suppliers and in many other aspects have been pointed out by informed sources from time to time. All this paints a dismal picture of the institute.
This institute is the brainchild of late Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah. Those who are acquainted with the history of the founding of this institute will recollect what lofty dream the late leader had about the future of this institution. He had spent lot of time and energy in raising funds for this institute through donations from philanthropic people and organizations. He had a vision of this institute becoming a model of service to the poor and the needy. He never imagined even for a moment that this institute would be hijacked by the rich, the elite and politically powerful persons in the state. He abhorred the institution becoming a den of intrigues and conspiracies.
This was the vision of the founder of this prestigious institute. It would be in fitness of things if the doctors and the rest of the staff pause for a moment and deeply consider the vision of the founder of the institute and then apply it to themselves and their functioning, surely a big change will take place in their attitude. There is nothing amiss if there is right and pragmatic thinking among the workers in the institution. The society has entrusted them with a responsibility which has the strong humanistic element. We hope the doctors and the staff at this prestigious institute will take a pledge of raising this institute precisely after the vision of its illustrious founder.
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