“Tring…tring…triiiiing”
The phone rings for the nth time in the laboratory while everything and everyone are up to something, all are doing their duty to help the
patients of the hospital which I can vouch is always more than their individual
capacities.
One of my technicians picks the call.
“Hello
Namaste, Microbiology” she says.
While the machines run and beep continuously, a technician
receives samples, another processes samples, and an another attends an another
call on the other telephone, a few patients wait outside for reports, a
housekeeping staff of one of the wards waits inside for reports, a clinician
calls for reports, a reporting desk assistant enters some reports, and I one of
the microbiologists verify some reports, in the midst of this routine she comes to me with the cordless with
quite a dreary look.
“Ma’am please speak to this patient, she is asking for
her H1N1 report”
I take the call.
“Hello how may I help you?” I ask the patient out of habit.
And the rest is to be swallowed, in the name of the
Hippocratic Oath.
There are times such as these when we get to hear from
patients the most absurd things possible to a point that they question the
credibility of a doctors duties and what I understand of such difficult situation is
this, if there is someone who has to show a great deal of patience it has to be
the doctors. It can be nobody else.
‘Death toll rises to….’
‘.....city’ has ‘x’ number of positive cases, and
‘y’ number of deaths
The fear is but obvious. I wish we paid attention to reverse of the coin as
well. The working of Indian health care system, especially our preparedness
with dealing such an epidemic, the availability of antiviral drugs and vaccination-the
pros and cons; when to take them, why to take them and who should take them.
The problems, more so solutions to the problems, these are the issues that need
to be addressed. Even if they are, the point is that they are not very precise.
As a result the pressures and forces acting upon the health care providers are
more of social nature than medical due to this trepidation created. We are
letting this run us as if we do not have a judgement of our own, well until the
next epidemic.
Diagnostics and therapeutics are central to the
working of a hospital and no doctor would risk his patient’s life by delaying a
test. H1N1 testing is a molecular test, done by a method called Polymerase
Chain Reaction and only a few laboratories have the setup and authorization to
run this test, thus the logistical problems. Although automation and technology
has reached the highest level possible in diagnostics there are areas which are
new to us doctors as well. When the workload reaches a threshold, the maximum
that a laboratory can do is increase its working capacity through various
means, that’s exactly being done in the testing centres across the country.
This scenario was quite unexpected in these places too. It is relatively easy
to put the blame on the working of a system although some complaints will have
the truth in them, thanks to the commercialization.
We must not forget one thing, a diagnosis that would not have been made otherwise is now scientifically understood and medically treatable. There is no sensibility in hitting the panic button for the wrong reasons. This all the more gives us a good opportunity to confront the reality of the influenza virus. A common cold may not be a common cold after all. The antigenic shifts and drifts, the pandemics and epidemics are not for history, they are here to stay. Let us face it together!
We must not forget one thing, a diagnosis that would not have been made otherwise is now scientifically understood and medically treatable. There is no sensibility in hitting the panic button for the wrong reasons. This all the more gives us a good opportunity to confront the reality of the influenza virus. A common cold may not be a common cold after all. The antigenic shifts and drifts, the pandemics and epidemics are not for history, they are here to stay. Let us face it together!
“Tring…”
The cordless on the table rang again.
“Namaste, Microbiology, how may I help you?” I asked.
“Doctor, I wanted to know my daughter’s H1N1 Report” came a query from a father at the other end.
I remembered his voice, the same man who had called at
least five times the last evening. How could I forget the fear and anxiety in
his voice, and that of the mother’s whom I could hear from behind? I searched for
the status of her report as eagerly as him. Doctors are definitely humans, at the end of throughout the
day.
-R.
