Evading culprits in State Health Sector

Two recent news reports on hospitals and doctors made headlines last week. Unfortunately non of these was on the positive side. They were two negative incidents which shook the whole health system and the society.

According to one news report a small girl was killed due to delay in giving anti venom injection by the hospital authorities and according to the other news report a doctor attached to a State hospital had injected something to a trainee nurse forcibly committing a very violent act just prior to Sri Lanka celebrating International Women’s Day.

One may wonder what has gone wrong with those working in our State health sector. Some of them try to destroy patients’ lives instead of saving them.

The most pathetic situation is, after killing and harassing patients and co-workers these `health experts’ work freely in the same places or some other place without any trouble while the victims rest in peace or suffer on hospital beds.

This proves one thing. That is the concerned authorities have not taken any action against them. We have to ask why. What is preventing them and the law enforcement authorities from taking action against the culprits?

These are not the last such incidents reported from State hospitals. There were uncountable number of similar incidents in the past. For example there was an innocent female patient who visited Negombo hospital for treatment was raped, pushed from a top floor of a building and murdered.

According to the latest media reports published recently, an invisible force has started to punish the relevant persons who stood by the victim’s side including eye witnesses. This is the latest development in connection with Negombo hospital incident as reported in media.

Let me describe what has happened to the girl who had a snake bite and died. Better to narrate one of my own experiences in connection with a similar incident that took place at one of the base hospitals located 25 kilometres away from Colombo city in 2005.

One of my uncles had a snake bite and admitted to this hospital immediately. My relations took the snake alive to the hospital. He was admitted to the hospital around 10.30 am and the hospital authorities kept him without any treatment till 6.30 pm. I stood by his bed from 11.30 am to 7.00 pm.

My uncle was about to die and was struggling to breath. He had a severe chest pain since 11.30 am. Since we had several bitter experiences with this hospital, around 6.15 pm we contacted some of our friendly doctors and some friends who held powerful positions in the health sector and begged them to call and order the hospital authorities to give the anti venom injection to my uncle immediately.

They called the hospital authorities as soon as we made the request and the hospital authorities gave him the injection as soon as they received calls from our friends. Our friends saved my uncle’s life.

This is the unforgettable bitter experience I had in connection with getting treatment from a State hospital for a snake bite. But unfortunately all innocent and needy patients in Sri Lanka who depend on State hospitals do not have such `connections’. That is why they visit State hospitals for free treatment.

Do all patients come with snake bites have to show dying signs to receive the anti venom injection under existing so called `procedure’? What is the use of these `procedures’ if patients die instead of surviving from death? It seems certain `procedures’ are made for the use of hospital authorities to neglect their responsibilities.

We just celebrated the International Women’s Day. While we celebrate this day a trainee nurse was lying on a hospital bed after a `doctor’s `treatment’.

This is not the first time a doctor harassed a female patient and when considering the steps taken against culprits so far we can predict this is not going to be the last time a similar incident took place in Sri Lanka.

The most pathetic situation is according to the staff of this hospital, this specific `person’ who had injected something to the trainee nurse has a history of harassing women. We have to question health authorities what actions they took against him for his past `treatments’.

What are the results of hundreds of `inquiries’ conducted on different fatal incidents occurred in the state health sector ? What are the punishments given to culprits? According to the public, there were no inquiries, no culprits and no punishments at all. Health Minister cannot chase after culprits and catch them himself ! He is only there to order relevant officials to do so. So where are the culprits?