Enough of the pseudo-philosophical nonsense.

Charu’s comment : I wonder what religion has got to do in all places like hospital and school etc.

Is one of the naivest and LOLest statements I’ve ever heard.

data collection, collation,Census

You must have read such figures???? :D :D
a) Community A has a greater percentage of children in school than community B.

b)Community A has a higher infant-mortality rate than community B.

c)Both A and B have terrible sex-ratios

d)A third Community C is better-off than A & B in a),b) and c)
Conclusion: Community B lags in a) and community A lags in b). Both A and B lag in c) C is in much better shape. So focus on improving A and B.
This helps the Government because it identifies the problem areas of a cluster of people( such as a religious community) and give primacy to their eradication. In a country of 1 billion people, it is kinda difficult to go door-to-door asking people about their difficulties, isn’t it? And the Government isn’t Bill Gates,either. Such classification is done on religion,gender,caste,geographical location(e.g. state A is richer than state B)

Another added benefit for many prejudiced NRIs is that they can quote such data and claim how India treats its minorities pathetically,how India is a nation of wife-beaters, ad inf.

8) 8)

In America, such data is compiled on the basis of race.
Indian-Americans are more affluent than Caucasians and Afro-Americans.
So give more priority to the eradication of poverty among Afro-Americans, because there are more of them in need.
That doesn’t make any sense here because Indians in general come from a myriad ethnic backgrounds.(yes, we’re mostly brown but nonetheless :P).

So how is this data collected? via the people themselves. That is why you specify your religion and gender in school and hospital application. If religion isn’t important, neither is gender. Why do mention your gender? Whatever happened to gender-equality :P ?

E.g. IIT-JEE 2009. The application form which I’d filled also asked for my caste,my religion, mother-tongue, my parents’ annual income and whether I was taking coaching for exam preparation.These were optional anyway, but why ask those things here? Because it helps the organizers determine the socio-economic status of the candidates(!).
Example, if most of the successful candidates were from upper classes, whose parents earned >30,00,00- rupees a year and took expensive and intensive coaching, the conclusion would be that JEE is an elitist exam which only rich persons can afford to attempt.
So make requisite changes in the exam pattern and organization.

In reality, the situation was somewhat the latter, and has led to JEE becoming easier with every passing year. It’s deliberate so as to undermine the coaching industry.
Ya, these are my hypotheses. I could be incorrect, so I request the economists and social scientists to please spare me.

No offence intended but I couldn’t help but laugh at this comment.

:D :D :D :D

Like or Dislike: 0  0

As for people asking your religion, ever wondered why in America people always mention your ethnicity(Caucasian, Afro,Asian,East-Indian) in most official documents(atleast the ones I’ve come across). Why should the colour of your skin matter? Tell you what, I’ve never been able to fathom why colour or religion should matter to anyone. But it’s human nature. It’s only natural for us to grade ourselves on religion,race,sexual orientation,blah blah blah. This is true for anyplace on earth. Whether Banaras or Beverly Hills.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

I wonder what religion has got to do in all places like hospital and school etc. Do they get to decide if they bury you or crimate you, whatever? Just sick of using god, religion and tradition to everything you do. I just returned from a month’s trip to India. The minute anyone says he is sick, they immediately pray to a specific god assigned to heart and paralytic issues and hope he will get better (but still continue the high fat junk food eating habits).

Reg insurance, I hear that the docs rip you off a lot more if you say you are using insurance instead of cash. Is that true? I am hearing contradicting opinions about insurance usage there. Also does the company (any companies such as yours?) provide you with insurance and pays it in full? How does it work?

Like or Dislike: 0  0

PS: It was an American Restaurant that made Auroracoda sick….and the proof was in the outbreak that was reported by a local health inspector! YAY!

Note to self, only go back there if one is in need of loosing 10 pounds, explosively, over the course of 3 days. :) lol

Like or Dislike: 0  0

http://om.ly/?rpi

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Yikes, I hope you’re feeling better now. These multi-symptom flus are really the worst!

You know, after we moved to India, everyone said to prepare for the attack of a whole new set of viruses, and – nothing happened.

I guess it turns out that avoiding crowded places and washing your hands frequently works in India too!:-)

-Neo

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Auroracoda was starting to get a little freaked out about that considering that she has spent the past three weeks with either a top side flu bug or a bottom side flu bug.

Auroracoda is most definitely tired of being sick.

Thank you SO much for posting this information! Auroracoda has saved it in her “important facts about India” folder for future reference! :)

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Great and critically important point. I should add that to my original post. Actually the best piece of advice I’ve gotten so far is to “never leave the patient alone”, except of course during surgeries. Actually, I have some friends where they get a trusted family physician to watch even the surgeries.

-Neo

Like or Dislike: 0  0

In my case, the nursing stuff was very young and very inexperienced as well, not what I’d expect from a hospital of that repute. We’d picked that hospital based on the recommendation of a trusted family friend (a doctor herself, who had worked there some years ago as a hospital administrator) and she hadn’t realized that the quality of staff had deteriorated. We later foind out that lot of their senior nursing staff had been poached by another hospital because they didn’t bother to compensate them adequately.

-DS (first time commentor, have been reading and enjoying your blog for a while)

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Thankfully it only came down to us doing an Indy 500 on 101 in commute traffic. No bears were harmed.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

The small population argument is a weak one. We pay tax, we get coverage. Yes there are reports of pressure on maternity services due to immigrants who pop out more sprogs than the natives but these are also going to be tax payers tomorrow. If you are asking about capacity, it is hugely variable due to how healthcare provision is structured. NHS could be better run, don’t get me wrong – the direct experience has shown me as much bad stuff as good stuff (Think 45 min for a spinal tap by inexperienced residents who fail at it yet are strictly forbidden to tap higher along the spine where the probability of success as well as permanent damage are higher! and then think experienced neurosurgeon taking 10 seconds for the tap and you think WTF? WHy didn’t you send her in earlier?) – but barring France’s pay-something-at-the-point-of-delivery system, this is the closest one can get to being true to the spirit of healthcare-as-a-basic-human-right.

The evidence from the US suggests that the lack of affordable healthcare for all actually stiffs the public health programmes in cost terms by an astonishing margin. It also creates an undue burden on ERs where chronic problems are addressed as if they were acute, straining resources further.

The economy is weaker but it will take maracas-sized-balls in politicians before they cut NHS spending. If this means deficit or otherwise a rationalisation of the civil service (we have over 1.2M serving 65M population so much scope there!), so be it. In fact the fewer the people who have jobs, the fewer will have private healthcare. So a downturn means NHS is used more, not least because of incipient problems created by the downturn. See this post I wrote and compare with what really is happening (pretty much what I mentioned except junk food sales are up as is cooking at home): http://bit.ly/ulsgF

Sorry to clog so much space. As you may not have guessed, I feel very passionately about public health esp in geriatric and mental health related concerns. :-/

(Just saw choxbox’s comment also re kids which is the exact opposite of what I said above. Which is natural. I have helped hysterical (natch and to an extent, understandable) parents (who are friends) deal with many problems (incl that neonate who needed surgery) by being concerned but detached and calm and rational and therefore useful. By and large fewer children die of preventable causes in the UK as a % than in India. I don’t think you will get agreement on this issue between parents and non-parents.)

Like or Dislike: 0  0

It is true that there is rationing. The hypochondriacs feel it the most! And there is due process before specialist treatment but it works well. I have had a few unfortunate 2nd hand experiences recently where I saw that the staff’s commitment and the consultant’s expertise were amazing. I also saw an older friend undergo cancer treatment in the private sector and while his 5-star hotel room like ward was better than a teaching hospital ward I had seen also, his pain is going to get more expensive soon as he is nearly 70. Most insurance policies do not cover older people beyond 70. The NHS treats everyone with special preventative care for older people. I don’t know how old your parents are but sooner than later, this practice in the insurance industry hurts each one of us in our pockets. Also the screening services are free, for a range of health issues such as cervical cancer, breast cancer and prostate cancer. For at-risk populations, the screening is more frequent and more rigorous. People who have had children here tell me that the post-natal care and support is very good, with a health worker coming to monitor the baby’s growth and health for weeks after birth. Indeed a child, born to someone I know, late last year needed a corrective surgery and he was diagnosed correctly by his health worker (the problem is extremely rare and afflicts more boys than girls).

Yes we pay for it but it is better than the temptation of having to sell someone’s child (that is the only option I will ever have) to pay for our own bells-and-whistles version of insurance.

As Poonam points out, good healthcare in India is still the privilege of the few. Not so in the UK. So what if my neighbour’s elderly parent uses it more? I will be someone’s elderly neighbour one day too.

(And I do dread having to deal with hospitals in India; I am in the midst of assessing options for someone’s long-term care and the lacunae are eye-watering. That is until I see the price tags on the options that ARE there. Boy, how we stuff our elderly and the infirm!)

Like or Dislike: 0  0

have had most horrendous experiences relating to the NHS, esply since it involved my children. know n people who will echo this – strangely all stories have to do with kids. am far happier with healthcare in des.

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Congratulations! I can imagine the situation with both families over! The good news is they will probably leave you alone for a while – well, until you have kids at least. :-)

Do you think that the comparatively lower population in the UK makes a system like NHS possible ? Do you think it can be implemented efficiently (ignoring other aspects such as corruption) in countries as vast (and diverse) as the US, or India ?

As an aside – and a question to Shefaly too, what’s the economy in the UK looking like ? The numbers and data look bleak, but what is your view ? Will things get worse before they get better ? Or is the worst behind us ?

-Neo

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Although the situation (in terms of quantity and quality of health care) has improved, I worry about my 30-something generation, esp those who work in software. Most are overweight, get almost zero exercise, have carb and oil-rich diets, and are basically walking health risks. What happens when this generation hits 50?

-Neo

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Well it is “free”, but you pay for it through almost punitive taxes. And the healthier you are, the more “unfair” this burden is. I haven’t had much experience with the NHS, but I’ve heard “waiting list” horror stories out of Canada.

-Neo

Like or Dislike: 0  0

Like or Dislike: 0  0