WHAT SHOULD I CALL the beginning of this day? Morning or mourning? My district was on orange alert because of heavy rains. The sky is overcast, ready to burst. And, it reflects my mood and that of many a parent in this state. The front pages of all daily newspapers have the same image—a crushed white car that saw the last moments of five medical students. All of them were 19 years old. And it had been just 55 days since they joined the Government T.D. Medical College in Alappuzha.
According to initial news reports, there were 11 students in the car. The other six are reportedly in intensive care. Around 9:30pm on December 2, the car hit a state transport bus head-on. The darkness, pouring rain and the overloaded car…. When I look in the mirror, I am flooded with memories of my youth. Many of us have providence and the prayers of our parents to thank for the long lives we have enjoyed, isn’t it so, dear reader?
As a grandfather, I cannot but think of the five homes drowning in tears, fighting despair. And the six homes where every soul is begging the Almighty for the lives of their children. As THE WEEK brings you the annual issue on India’s best hospitals, I cannot but think of the lives the five would have saved, had they gone on to have a long and fulfilling career in medicine. It is indeed as John Greenleaf Whittier wrote: “For of all sad words of tongue or pen,/ the saddest are these: ‘It might have been!’”
The main article in the cover story spells out the wish list doctors shared with Principal Correspondent Pooja Biraia. It begins with a plea for the physical safety of medical professionals in their workplace and goes on to list basic amenities like clean washrooms and break rooms as they often pull all-nighters. Then there are requests specific to patient care, like early screening of babies for congenital conditions to facilitate early diagnosis and treatment.
Senior Correspondent Nirmal Jovial talked to Dr Somasekhar S.P. at Aster Whitefield about IOERT technology that allows for the precise delivery of high-dose radiation for oncology patients. The cover story is accompanied by THE WEEK-Hansa Best Hospitals Survey 2024 conducted across 17 cities with 2,323 health care professionals as respondents.
There are two guest articles, too. Sindoori Reddy, director (strategy), Apollo Hospitals, writes about the need to marry technology and digital innovation while keeping the human context in mind. Dr Rahul Pandit, chair (critical care and emergency medicine), Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, writes about the need for doctors to upskill in three major areas—“knowledge and surgical skills, procedural skills, and soft skills”.
In other coverage, former high commissioner to Bangladesh Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty talks about the disturbing political developments there. In @leisure, Special Correspondent Anjuly Mathai interviews the evergreen Bryan Adams. “Adams made us all PhD holders in day-dreaming. He owned romance,” she writes. I am sure many of you will agree.
On December 6, THE WEEK Best Hospitals Awards 2024 ceremony will be held in Hyderabad, with Telangana Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha as the chief guest. The new Health section on THE WEEK’s website will be launched at the event. Please do visit the site and tell me how we can make it better.