Which corporate hospital in Hyderabad has the best Facebook Cover image? “Integrity is the ability to stand by an idea.” ― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead Most of you thought it is Apollo Health City's Facebook cover image but it's not. Surprised? Read on. Though Apollo Health City Facebook page has 65k followers, using a generic campaign creative on its cardiac treatment expertise looks vague. My feeling is that either a patient or a star heart transplant surgeon should have been at the heart of the cover image. In case of the latter, my bet is on Dr Alla Gopala Krishna Gokhale, Cardio Thoracic Surgeon, who could have been featured instead but the management may be wary of a doctor becoming bigger than the hospital. This creative goes well with the violet color of Care Hospitals but the designer should have run a spell-check on November! By the way, lung cancer being the most common cancer in Indian men could be factually incorrect. It s...
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Fake doctors & Real politicians: The deadly mix for public health
On 24 August the union health minister Jagat Prakash Nadda shot off a 200-worded letter to NDA ally and TDP supremo Nara Chandrababu Naidu urging him to take 'appropriate action and corrective steps under the law against quacks' in his state. The wonder of wonders is that union health minister was compelled to do that after his junior state counterpart and Andhra Pradesh health minister Kamineni Srinivas held a press conference at AP secretariat on 21 August, announcing their government's intention to legally recognize the profession of quackery in their state! It is another story that AP's yellow media, pampered by ruling TDP, did not bother to check the technical usage of the abbreviations RMP and PMP as they freely used the suffixes for their front page stories on the deadly initiative. Well, if AP's health minister announces their 'path-breaking' initiative for rural health, will Telangana's ruling party pol...
Hungry! Work full & Take Home Peanuts
If you happened to have watched a chase scene in 1998 romantic-comedy film Pyaar To Hona Hi Tha, Om Puri (Inspector Khan) hands over a few chickpea (chana) to his constable to eat while chasing the elusive Shekhar in their police jeep. This after the constable-driver pleads he cannot drive any longer and wants to stop the jeep to eat but Om Puri just just asks him to munch a few Chana to drive away his hunger. The bewildered look on the face of the constable tells all as he starts driving faster, saying his hunger has been satiated. Well, come back to Osmania General Hospital (OGH) or any of the dozen state run medical college cum hospitals in Telangana as hundreds of medicos share the plight of that constable. This is why when newly appointed Telangana director of medical education Dr K Ramesh Reddy was felicitated at a public event in Koti on Tuesday, Telangana Junior Doctors' Association (TJUDA) came along with not just a garland but a memorandum as well. Here are...
The art of spotting a drug addict in school!
Post the drug bust among school going kids, it will be completely incorrect for teachers, parents and civil society to shirk from their responsibilities and squarely just put the onus on Telangana Excise Enforcement Director Akun Sabharwal to clean up the mess. This is what consultant pulmonologist, qualified medical journalist and allergy super-specialist Dr Vyakarnam Nageshwar recently pointed out during Hyderabad principals' conclave held in the city. In fact, Dr Vyakarnam pointed out that not just teachers and parents, even psychologists and psychiatrists too are stakeholders in weeding out the drug menace from the society. "In cases involving drug addicted children, they must be presented before psychologists to make an attempt in changing their behaviour but if they fail, psychiatrists may have to enter the scene," he said. However, during this time, Dr Vyakarnam suggested parents to inform the law enforcement agencies as this seems to be necessary sin...
Gorakhpur tragedy: IMA's investigation committee ducks blame factors
Playing diplomatically correct is often the norm whenever any tragedy hits a public sector hospital in any part of India. The fatal consequences are very clear but nobody wants others to know who and where one went wrong. This has been the cardinal rule followed by all stakeholders-- whether it is a government appointed inquiry committee or National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) or a non-government committee appointed by Indian Medical Association. Take the case of IMA, which went on to appoint a three member expert committee -- Dr KP Kushwaha Expert, Dr Ashok Aggarwal NVP IMA and Dr BB Gupta IMA Gorakhpur President -- to investigate the matter and submit report in 48 hours. The brief for the members were the following: 1. Was it an oxygen system failure. Continuous reserve Oxygen supply must be available for atleast seven days. Why was the alarm not given a week back. Why ws oxygen supply allowed to cease. What were the engineers doing during this period? ...
Hyderabad NGO plans freedom from snake bite fatalities!
S nakes are the second most dreaded in the animal class Reptiles after crocodiles but play more important role than the latter when it comes to maintaining food chain balance in the ecosystem, controlling the rodent population to benefit the agrarian economy. Unfortunately, these slimy reptiles get into the bad books in people's psyche whenever they unintentionally bite someone. Things get worse if the bite becomes fatal for the victim as a perception then grows that they need to be killed whenever sighted. Enter Hyderabad based NGO Helping Hand Foundation. Starting 30th August, Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) in collaboration with Nizams Institute of Medical Sciences' (NIMS) Department of Emergency Medicine, will be conducting skill based workshops on how to deal with "snake bite emergencies" for clincians in rural areas. Each year, thousands of poor people, especially farmers in rural areas die or get incapacitated by snake bites and this program is said...
This surgical gastroenterologist adjudged best government doctor in Telangana
10 best sellers In recognition to his services rendered in Osmania General Hospital (OGH), surgical gastroenterologist Dr Ch Madhusudhan -- who shot to limelight with a series of firsts while taking up critical, rare and complex surgeries in government sector hospitals -- has been selected as the best government doctor in the state. He has been shortlisted as one of the four government employees among 12 'best' government employees (the 12 have been further shortlisted from among 132 employees in the state across different sectors and departments) selected by the Telangana government across all sectors under its newly introduced Incentive Scheme given in recognition to their outstanding work. Under this scheme, the top four out of the 12 -- will receive a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh, one increment and certificate -- while others will be given a cash incentive of Rs 3 lakh and Rs 2 lakh in that order. The incentives will be presen...
Telangana Medical Council has fewer registered doctors than Goa!
Even Himachal, Jharkhand, Uttarakhand and Chattisgarh states have more registered doctors than Telangana T here is one allopathy doctor for every 1183 Indians right now but sorry, I am not going to analyse the pros and cons of it as it is not the news focus for this blog story. That India has a total of 10,22,859 doctors holding a recognized primary medical qualification and registered with Medical Council of India (MCI) as on 31st March, 2017 too is not the focus of this blog story either. (See the full table of registered doctors below) What's The Focus The focus is on Telangana State Medical Council poor track-record in convincing practicing doctors in the state to register their degrees with them. With only 0.23% (2345) practicing doctors out of the total 10,22,859 doctors in India registered with Telangana State Medical Council, it looks very shameful at least in government records as their numbers are less th...