Posted by Dr. Gopal Unnikrishna Kurup
Tragedies might appear as bolts from the blues, sometimes even as ordained due to wrath of heaven, but these days those of earthly reasons are aplenty. News of one such ghastly tragedy struck us last Friday. When reports of nearly 30 children dead in 48 hours in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College and Hospital trickled in on Friday night, it proved to be yet another ghastly example of the government's ailing public healthcare system in India. The death of these 30 children within a span of 48 hours and 63 children in the last five days for various reasons including lack of oxygen supply at the Uttar Pradesh hospital which was stopped when the hospital failed to clear its dues of over Rs 68 lakh. A letter by the vendor — Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd — addressed to the hospital chief suggested an outstanding payment of Rs 68,65,702 was the reason behind the disruption of the oxygen supply. After 4.30 pm on Saturday, the BRD Medical College Principal, Rajiv Mishra was suspended. A judicial inquiry has been ordered. Both the Chief Minister Yogi Adithya Nath and the Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya assured that "whoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action,". After 3.30 pm on Saturday, the Prime Minister Office tweeted that Narendra Modi was closely monitoring the situation in Uttar Pradesh and said that Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and Union health secretary will take stock of situation.Union health minister JP Nadda has also sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh health department on the deaths of the children.
As always, the opposition saw it as an opportunity to derive political mileage. Insincere outbursts of outrage and laments flew at the state and central govts, as if it is the first ghastly incident taking place in that state. Rahul Gandhi with alacrity reserved only for such god-send opportunities took out his familiar template of Modi bashing, filled it up and threw at the people. Sonia ostentatiously commiserated with the hapless people, while retainers like Manish Tiwari stressed the "moral responsibility". Both he and co-retainer Ghulam Nabi Azad, demanded the head of Chief Minister and Health Minister ( who was a rival spokesman for BJP). Other parties, including the always-under-illusion Maya-vathi's donated their usual babel and bedlam.
No doubt, the state government authorities are at fault. A responsible opposition should identify the culprit level at which the failure occurred and pin down it in order to be positive and effective. Any negative and irresponsible blame game will only be counterproductive. The government has made it clear that no one from the hospital had informed them about the issue of lack of oxygen. Government at ministerial level is the solution to the problem and is not the problem unless directly responsible for the mishap at that level.
The fact of the matter is that when it comes to public spending on healthcare, India lags behind abysmally. Research by medical journal Lancet showed that India ranked 154 out of 195 countries in terms of healthcare access, far behind countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana and Liberia. That is the legacy from the family Raj.
THE GHASTLY TRAGEDY AT GORAKHPUR
Tragedies might appear as bolts from the blues, sometimes even as ordained due to wrath of heaven, but these days those of earthly reasons are aplenty. News of one such ghastly tragedy struck us last Friday. When reports of nearly 30 children dead in 48 hours in Gorakhpur's Baba Raghav Das (BRD) Medical College and Hospital trickled in on Friday night, it proved to be yet another ghastly example of the government's ailing public healthcare system in India. The death of these 30 children within a span of 48 hours and 63 children in the last five days for various reasons including lack of oxygen supply at the Uttar Pradesh hospital which was stopped when the hospital failed to clear its dues of over Rs 68 lakh. A letter by the vendor — Pushpa Sales Pvt Ltd — addressed to the hospital chief suggested an outstanding payment of Rs 68,65,702 was the reason behind the disruption of the oxygen supply. After 4.30 pm on Saturday, the BRD Medical College Principal, Rajiv Mishra was suspended. A judicial inquiry has been ordered. Both the Chief Minister Yogi Adithya Nath and the Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya assured that "whoever is found guilty in the tragic and painful incident at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur will certainly face stringent action,". After 3.30 pm on Saturday, the Prime Minister Office tweeted that Narendra Modi was closely monitoring the situation in Uttar Pradesh and said that Union minister of state for health Anupriya Patel and Union health secretary will take stock of situation.Union health minister JP Nadda has also sought a report from the Uttar Pradesh health department on the deaths of the children.
As always, the opposition saw it as an opportunity to derive political mileage. Insincere outbursts of outrage and laments flew at the state and central govts, as if it is the first ghastly incident taking place in that state. Rahul Gandhi with alacrity reserved only for such god-send opportunities took out his familiar template of Modi bashing, filled it up and threw at the people. Sonia ostentatiously commiserated with the hapless people, while retainers like Manish Tiwari stressed the "moral responsibility". Both he and co-retainer Ghulam Nabi Azad, demanded the head of Chief Minister and Health Minister ( who was a rival spokesman for BJP). Other parties, including the always-under-illusion Maya-vathi's donated their usual babel and bedlam.
No doubt, the state government authorities are at fault. A responsible opposition should identify the culprit level at which the failure occurred and pin down it in order to be positive and effective. Any negative and irresponsible blame game will only be counterproductive. The government has made it clear that no one from the hospital had informed them about the issue of lack of oxygen. Government at ministerial level is the solution to the problem and is not the problem unless directly responsible for the mishap at that level.
The fact of the matter is that when it comes to public spending on healthcare, India lags behind abysmally. Research by medical journal Lancet showed that India ranked 154 out of 195 countries in terms of healthcare access, far behind countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Ghana and Liberia. That is the legacy from the family Raj.
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