Santhosh's ramblings

I work in a context where there is always loud voices and non-physical violence (verbal violence) as part of the health care context. Yesterday morning walking into ICU – this patient has been with us for 10 days with a Chronic Meningitis and encephalopathy. There was that one particular distant relative, who has been consistently “irritating”. He would walk in and out of the wards, OPD catching you in the corridors, or any other doctor and trying to ask questions, asking for surety of success, shouting at the nurses over last 10 days. Our team had offered that the patient be referred to a higher centre, but the same person would say yes once and then turn around and decide against it. At the end of this multiple dilly dallying I decided time has come to stop and put an end to this. I called him aside and had gave him a verbal show down, whereby I asked him to make up his mind regarding taking patient off or keeping him with us. Now after 10 days, we were sending the patient home,...

A few years back I had done a study on Community which continues to challenge me as I look around and observe the various communities I have been in touch with. But the more I see, the more I see comfortable communities! Not any more the boiling pots of simmering fires. May be we have grown, or is it really growth? One end of the spectrum is what i call the "Boiling Pot community." This is where there is outright conflict, each person lives for his own plans and desires. The end point is me, mine and no more. From this stage, because of various issues, the community might move to seeming peace. This is the "Simmering Fire community". Due to contextual pressures, there is a cohabitation, but an inner cold war. There is a hai, bye relationships but still the end point continues to be me. Somewhere down the line, due to a common agenda which needs to be fulfilled, people move into a "Lukewarm community" where there is peaceful coexistence for a com...