Scene: Busy clinic hours in a medium sized hospital that caters to the rural and semi-urban areas in and around Vellore. An old lady in her late sixties sat across me; she has diabetes and had come one week late for her refill of medicines. She also had symptoms of severe gastritis (‘gas’ in simpler non-medical language). I started my usual tirade of questions- why did you miss your diabetes medicines; are you taking your meals on time?
I expected the usual sheepish grin or the evasive smile in response. But here she was tearing up and telling me her sad story. Her husband and son had passed away a few years ago. Her two married daughters had their own lives to live. She was managing alone pretty OK till a month ago when the old age pension that the government gave her didn’t arrive. Why? Because she stayed at a different place than the one in her Identity card, her name was taken off the list and she hadn’t received her pension. She was running around visiting government offices to set this straight for the past one week, resulting in her not being able to eat on time and missing her medicines.
This is but one sad story. There are many more out there, which keep reminding me that hospitals are just one of the places where health can be sought. For had our nation’s social security system provided the elderly lady her timely pension, her health would’ve been better.
On the same day this happened, I had the pleasure of listening to an economist from Delhi who was visiting CMC and dropped by at our department. She spoke of food security, employment and India’s changing face of social policy pushing for better health.
Yes, there is hope! Hopefully, we will see days when health of the people is better not just because the hospitals have gotten better, but because the social, political, environmental and financial scenes have changed for the greater good! How?? It’s our job to find the answers!