During induction, doctors are known to take the ‘ Hippocratic Oath’, a pledge about serving the mankind. But over the years, the oath seems to have dwindled into hypocrisy, with greed taking centrestage.
Uttar Pradesh, perhaps, best embodies this decline as doctors have been accused of colluding with corrupt officials in siphoning off a huge amount of money from the National Rural Health Mission ( NRHM).
But this seems to have hardly come as a deterrent to the medical fraternity as in one shocking incident, a woman was forced to give birth in a garbage dump after doctors turned her away.
The woman, who ironically was entitled to special treatment under the Janani Suraksha Yojana ( JSY) of the NRHM, gave birth to a boy in a pile of garbage on Thursday when doctors at Sumerpur Primary Health Centre ( PHC) in Hamirpur district denied her admission.
But as soon as she gave birth, a hospital staff was promptly sent to her to register her name and address as a beneficiary of JSY. The incident took place when 24- yearold Anita Nai of Bharua Sumerpur, went to the PHC. “ I had reached the hospital on Wednesday evening but the doctors did not let me in. They did not even let me lie in the corridor or near the gate. So I had to come here ( the garbage dump),” Anita said.
Dr Sukhlata Verma, medical superintendent at the centre, chose to defend the hospital staff.
“ It is normal for us to ask a woman to go to Hamirpur district hospital if we find that the case is complicated,” Dr Verma said, before adding: “ But I don’t have information about what happened to this particular woman.” A hospital employee explained how greed has overtaken the noble profession.
“ Under the JSY, there is a provision of handing a cheque of ` 1,400 to a BPL woman for a delivery at a government hospital.
There is also a provision of giving the mother ` 500 in cash in case a health worker supervises the delivery at home.
In that case the health worker gets ` 600 for each delivery,” the employee said.
“ It so happens that often hospital staff deny admission to a pregnant woman and then distribute the money among themselves,” the employee alleged.
He claimed that on an average, doctors at PHC refuse admission to around 300 women a month.
As news spread about the birth, district magistrate B. Chandrakala ordered a probe and handed over a cheque of ` 10,000 to Anita.