Today Shreshtha and I went to Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia (RML)
Hospital. Shreshtha went to the nursing school that is attached to the
hospital, thus I received an insider experience today. The Government of India
(Ministry of Health Family Welfare) funds this hospital, meaning that all
hospital visits, medications, outpatient care, and surgeries are free (similar
to the BSA hospital I visited last week). Unlike the BSA hospital, however,
this hospital is very similar the Rajiv Gandhi Cancer and Research Hospital. It
was very easy to tell that the Government of India had placed much more money
into making this hospital, while the state government of Delhi funds the BSA
Hospital.
The RML is a much nicer hospital. They have private rooms, a
garden, and a very large facility in total. The hospitals I have seen so far do
not have waiting rooms for their patient’s families, but the RML has large
enough spaces outside that seem to accommodate their needs. It is in a
beautiful neighborhood, the center of Delhi. I would say that the biggest
challenge with this hospital is that they do turn down patients, in order to
avoid crowding in the hospital. If I were a patient or a faculty member in the
hospital, I would be very happy that they have turn down patients, so that I
would receive more attention and thus better care. On the opposite end, I would
hate that system if I needed care and was turned away.
The BSA hospital does not turn anyone away, however, as
stated in a previous blog posting, the standard of care is reduced. Despite the
efforts to make the quality of care equivalent, the understaffed faculty
physically cannot take on the load of patients that they do and not reduce the
standard of care. It is a matter of overpopulation. On top of this, though, I
feel that there are many factors that contribute to why the RML is nicer than
the BSA hospital. The Government of India could have done a better job with its
budgeting in comparison to the State Government of Delhi. Another factor that
may come into play is that with nicer/wealthier areas come less communicable
diseases. Also, the RML hospital is a newer hospital.
In terms of HIV/AIDS, the anti-retroviral therapy (ART)
center was under construction, therefore I did not fully experience the
workings of that center. The RML hospital has the same systems from what I have
seen before – starting with counselors that guide the patients, determine their
needs, and track their medications, ending with doctors providing even more
medical therapy. However, one difference I did learn today, is the fact that
they save these counselor positions for someone who is HIV positive. Looking
more into it, it must be very difficult for someone with HIV/AIDS to get a job
in India. If they receive their medications from the government, it must be
very difficult to come in everyday and receive medications and maintain a job.
From the patient’s perspective, going into a hospital can be quite scary. It
may ease the tension if the first person they must talk to is someone who
understands first hand what that patient is going through.
Our time at the hospital ended with visiting Shreshtha’s old
nursing school. Also funded by the Government of India, it is a beautiful
facility that accepts top students. In comparison, the Salokaya College of
Nursing has a very different range of students. Salokaya takes students that
would not normally go off to receive a higher education, works them very hard,
and makes them top nurses.
Anyways, it was fun hearing about Shreshtha’s experiences in school and
made us leave RML on a high note.
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