Santhosh's ramblings

Much has been written and shared about COVID19 and ongoing responses. But mostly from places where the epidemic is quite advanced and more so, from resource rich contexts, struggling to contain and mitigate even with all their resources. The resources they have is not enough for the numbers they are facing. The resource limited nations thus far have much lesser numbers than the richer and developed nations. But for health care professionals in such contexts, this is not a time for complicity, but a time to refocus and reorganize for when we would face similar or many more numbers of patients with much lesser resources to respond with. This article considers some questions that health care professionals in resource limited settings and developing nations need to consider as we look ahead, with a lack of clarity, to what the future holds for COVID19 pandemic. Most of our nations are in lockdown. Experiences from countries that acted early and tried to contain the epidemic, show ...

The COVID19 epidemic has thrown nations into complete chaos.   Fear and panic have gripped   the world. Many nations are struggling with the impact of large numbers of people falling ill and increasing numbers of new infections. Many nations are preparing for an eventuality of such a context, but struggling, not knowing what they should be doing since the current generation of leaders in the world has not faced such a pandemic before. Health care Institutions and organizations are struggling with     questions of their own responses, and their staff safety. Institutions in the developing world, challenged with their resource constraints but with a desire to make a difference in such a context, are considering what they should do at this unprecedented time in the history of the world. How should leaders respond at such a time as this? If we listen to the media reports, we hear stories of leaders denying the problem, other leaders giving into panic, yet other...

A few questions that I am struggling with…. Yet another normal day in the hospital. All around the COVID19 fears, and home quarantines, closure of offices, social distancing and loud and clear media messages of prevention and mitigation.  As I walked around seeing a few those who have come to hospital, I realized for most who came to Outpatient Department it was yet another normal day. A few quick questions to some of them revealed that, they are there because they need their regular medicines. There is no “Amazon” that delivers their medicines at home! They need to check their sugars, their BP, their prescriptions must be filled.   (I put up the picture of the OPD somewhere and there was a suggestion that only essential services should be open!)   For this community, what is essential is their daily medicines, and they need a service which will provide that – could we close it down, because the urban well off can afford to get in online? And deprive regular tre...

We live in a context where, identity-based politics has become the norm of the day. Various divides are being perpetuated using these identities, primarily for political and other gains. And all are in some way or other caught up in this, if not today, likely to be caught up tomorrow. Identities based on people groups and caste is something we have grown up with as part of our life in our nation. This dates much before the idea of India, when we were multiple language and people groups-based kingdoms and communities, a history and culture deeply ingrained in us. Even the christian community that I am part of, which prides itself in its teaching of being caste-less, hold on to caste and people group identity. The geography-based identity is yet another aspect of our life in India. The “Madrasi” or South India community vs the North, the North vs North Eastern communities, the pahadias vs the plains people, the rural vs the urban and many such other identities by which we label...

As a professional care giver in health, looking back over last few decades of engagement in various ways of caring and facilitating systems of caring, I realize that my reasons of being in the field are not anymore that I started off with. I remember, when I started off on my journey, as a young consultant, I was one who wanted to change the world.   Started off with an arrogance that “I know it all” and I with my knowledge and skills can change the world I am kept in! I started off with also the clear understanding that I have the knowledge and skills, and the “poor and the people in need” my “God given talents and abilities” so that they can live a better life. (I do no think I still have been completely cured of this paradigm, but it seems to have weaned off a bit over last few decades.) And the institutional structures that I was part of, encouraged this paradigm. We are one of the best care providers, we have the knowledge, the ability and of course “compassion” as a...

A visit to the Armauer Hansen’s laboratory in the St Georges hospital, Bergen was an interesting but challenging one. The Leprosy Museum (Lepramuseet) in Bergen is housed in the 18th century buildings of St Jorgen’s (St George’s) Hospital, and St. Jorgen’s Church forms part of the old leprosy hospital buildings. The hospital was founded before 1411 and was the central institution for treating people affected by leprosy in Western Norway until its closure in 1946. The present-day buildings date back to the early 18th century. An enthusiastic historian with his passionate story telling stirred our hearts, minds and souls! Let me share with you some reflections, from what I heard. It was at St Jørgen that Hansen’s predecessor, Daniel Cornelius Danielssen, embarked on leprosy research in 1839. In 1840, Danielssen began a collaboration with Carl Wilhelm Boeck. This partnership culminated in the celebrated work ‘‘Om Spedalskhed (On Leprosy)’’, putting Bergen in the forefront o...

29/102019 A lesson in rest and contentment   What is visible in front of me is a calm blue lake with mountains around. Though there are multiple series of mountain peaks ahead, I can only see one or two lines of them, rest are clouded out. The last three days have been days of waiting - waiting in anticipation for clouds to part. To part and move away so that the snow peaked series of mountains can be seen. A picture of my life. There is the present peace and calmness around me. There are enough visible mountains around in my sphere of vision and in my life, which is an assurance of the stability I have experienced over years. But my eyes are on the clouds, hoping and waiting for it to pass on. So that I can see beyond what is visible, the hope of something better, the anticipation of something greater and more majestic. All because I had once seen it - in our last visit - and it makes me desirous again. Oh that I may rest in the given calming presence of the lake a...