Tuesday, June 13, 2006
of hospitals and flies.....Had a reporting excersise at one of the city's largest medical facilites today- Jinnah Hospital, that is.
I guess most of you like myself wouldnt have been there ever, neither do ofcourse you plan to go there in future. Ok so i didnt expect the place to win an award for spic and span floors, neat and clean rooms and educated peole, coz ofcourse we all know it caters to the masses and is a federally funded hospital with a vast majority being from the rural and hence illiterate class. and yet.........it all REALLY disappointed me- rather distressed me.
imagine peeking into a food container and finding hoards of flies inside....black little 'things' buzzing around as if its their permanent abode. and that food was being served to the patients!
imagine a donkey cart complete with the braying sounds of the animal.....roaming inside the premises....
imagine hundreds of families sitting there.....under the hot sun....waiting for a doctor to just have look at their patients.......a woman who came with her sister to the gynae ward gave a graphic description of the ICU in the ward.....insects on the suffereing patients, as if on dead bodies.....coakroaches within the ICU..........need i say more??
the doctors too are in a sorry state- beatings being a common practice by the relatives of any deceased person. why the heck do they expect the doctors to be a messiah to cure everything?? he/she afterall is not a miracle worker....but then they are poor ppl!!
on the other hand....the tales we got to know by talking to various people showed the lives we lead- the lives the masses lead. our teacher said he wanted us to look at the 'real' karachi.....the people on the other side of the divide, and yes we did. a girl of about 18 was there becus she had attempted to commit suicide by taking some insect killing poison, because she had had a fight with her sisters. and she was their......shouting her griviences against the doctors to anyone who wud listen. a woman in extereme labour pains was told to go back home coz there was no bed empty for her. ysterday a taxi driver died and the doctor was badly beaten, although according to the doctors he did everything that could be done for the poor person. human suffering stares u in the eyes once u go to such public sector places, whether its a school or a hospital. two MAJOR facilities are in such abysmal conditions, there are ofcourse a handful of fighting souls woring against the injustices but............but there has to be a major rebuilding of the basic infrastructure....to educate the masses and to keep them healthy. we cant expect uneducated, unhealthy, mentally disturbed and tortured people to do any good to this already brumbling nation. but hen again.......m not the only one saying this.......god knows how many people write and fight..........likin kia???
on a lighter note....it was truly hilarious to see a nurse (i guess she was a nurse) taking rounds of the hospital on her MOTORCYCLE!!! lolz yes she indeed was zooming around, we DO manage to smile in the midst of chaos, afterall we are karachi walas :-)