The question was where to go. As we well know, distance and affordability are two key factors in making this decision. Of course the comfort of having a GP is non-existent in our present set up, so I was struck by the startling fact that, as a resident of Bangalore city for over a decade, I really did not have ‘someone I could go to’. There exist the ‘annual package services’ at the big centres like Narayan Hridayala and Apollo or Fortis , which apparently are value for money and I thought I would take a leaf out of the book of my net savvy children and do a google search. Now it turned out that the nearest hospital to our house had awful feedback reviews and I was rather concerned.

So at dinner ( the forum for such matters) when we looked at possibilities, given everyone’s crazy schedules ( which is why this event was skipped last year by the way!) we wondered whether we should go directly to the diagnostic lab and give them the list of tests needed. And discovered that some stuff still needed another doc!

So I made a call to the tried and tested “nursing home” , multi speciality private hospital , fairly close by, and reliable. This last conclusion comes from feedback from scores of patients we have referred I the past and our own parents. The very professional voice on the phone told me “ A physician will do this check up between 6.30 pm and 8.30 pm , Monday to Friday , Madam”.

Friday evening saw us waiting our turn out side the young doctor’s cubicle . After a half hour wait, he did the needful and with great professional courtesy did not charge us a fee. A long list of blood and other such sundry tests , unfortunately not all available under one roof , awaited us on the morrow.

Saturday morning ….., and we set out early, undaunted by the seeming impossibility of finishing it in one day!

As we waited in the queue, I was struck by a number of things. One, people always scramble because they are either truly in a hurry or truly believe they are in a hurry. Staff managing the counter were amazing in their grasp of our infinite number of languages, polite and firm. People do not like to sit next to each other while waiting amongst strangers- every odd seat was vacant. People are so anxious and self absorbed that they often do not see others standing, when a seat next to them is available.

We were called to order for the various tests and I slowly transitioned from being me to being roughly seventy kilos of warmish albuminoid matter. They staff were unfailingly polite, extremely efficient ( the technician told me he draws an astonishing 70 blood samples in two hours) and mostly on autopilot.

As the sun grew warmer and we returned for our post breakfast blood tests, all of us were beginning to droop round the edges. Meanwhile, I had stripped , been poked and prodded radiated examined with ruthless efficiency while being carefully guided into rooms with the ubiquitous green curtains!

My husband rallied through the treadmill while I shot across in an auto to get the menopausal ‘must’ screenings done in another hospital!

By lunch we were jubilant….. wondering how to spend three hours waiting for the results. Finally we went home, exhausted and needing the rest. I went back in the evening with my daughter to pick up the results. And she was telling me about our house help who comes from Bihar. They migrated because her father sold three “kheths” or fields to pay for her brother’s dengue treatment in Delhi where he had gone to work. “I think that is probably why you guys work so hard for health insurance”…..she says.

And I think that is why when Pandora’s box flew open, Hope was left behind!

The Second regional team meeting for Health Inc Indian partners was held at Mumbai between 24^th and 26^th April 2013. This meeting was hosted by Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) at Hotel Jewel of Chembur, Mumbai. It was attended by members of Institute of Public Health Bangalore (IPH) and Tata Institute of Social Sciences (TISS) teams, along with representatives from the Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM) and London School of Economics – Health (LSE). In the meeting both the partners shared their findings so far and discussed possible areas and processes for comparision. In addition, the teams discussed further strategies to develop the policy recommendations and dissemination.

Call for abstract

Date:  23-April-2013

TIme:  2.30 pm to 4.30 pm

Venue: Institute of Public Health, Bangalore (For directions click here)

Speaker: Dr.Prashanth.N.S

Speaker: Dr.Upendra Bhojani

Any query contact Dr.Vijayashree (vijayashree@iphindia.org)

To view the previous PHD seminar schedule – click here

A training session was conducted for police officials of the Western Range of Karnataka which includes 4 districts on the 14th March 2013. The officers underwent training for implementation of smoking ban in public places and other guidelines regarding tobacco control. The workshop was conducted in Police Guest House, Mangalore. Tobacco control was taken up as an important issue since one tobacco related death happening every eight second in the country! Karnataka presently has around Two Crore consumers, one third of who may die a premature death. Such sensitization and training programs will help in proper implementation of the existing laws.

This monograph is based on a large-scale study among youth in Bangalore, the metropolitan capital of Karnataka. It elaborates various aspects related to tobacco use among youth: consumption of tobacco; perceptions of tobacco use and tobacco users; individual, social and environmental correlates of tobacco use; and status of prevailing tobacco control measures. Apart from the study findings, the monograph reviews and summarises the current literature and provides a nation-wide glimpse of these issues. It concludes by providing some pertinent suggestions on reducing tobacco use among youth.

Available as print version on Amazon – click here 
Kindle version – click here

Participation in South-East Asia Regional Public Health Conference & 57th All India Annual Conference of IPHA in Kolkata for 1st to 3rd of February 2013.
The conference accepted from IPH staff two abstracts for oral presentation and one abstract for poster presentation.

The abstract of oral presentation by Dr. Prashanth NS was titled “More noise than usual”- Preliminary findings from evaluation of district-level capacity building programme of health managers. The paper highlighted possible mechanisms through which capacity-building programmes could bring about positive organisational change as those which could be seen to operate at three levels: individual characteristics of the participants (such as motivation, organisational commitment, attitudes towards positive organisational change), institutional arrangements (supportive nature of supervision, workplace dynamics among teams and the prevailing “culture” within their organisations such as district or taluka hospitals, PHCs and such) and the socio-economic and political environment in their taluka or district.

The abstract of oral presentation by Mr. Kuruvila Daniel was titled Analysis of medical negligence cases in the Tumkur district consumer forum from 2001 to 2011. The study concluded that incidence rate of cases in consumer forum was only 6/100,000 admissions in 2010, more obstetric cases could reflect more visibility of maternal health under NRHM and more cases against private providers could indicate patients’ expectation of value for money and assumption of government facilities being excluded from Consumer Protection Act (CPA).

Date:  March 21st 2013

TIme:  2.30 pm to 4.30 pm 

Venue: Institute of Public Health, Bangalore (For directions click here)

 Any query contact Dr.Vijayashree (vijayashree@iphindia.org)