Rupali Sharma (name changed), a student of
microbiology, and her classmates were hanging out with other students at the
canteen of BJ Medical College in the afternoon when she should have been in the
classroom. Reason: Their professors were attending a workshop on TB organised
by Ahmedabad Medical Association (AMA). The workshop, incidentally, was supposed
to be organised at private hospitals.
For better implementation of ‘Revised National
Tuberculosis Control Programme’ (RNTCP), Indian Medical Association (IMA) has
started a nation-wide programme in 15 states, including Gujarat. As the
official website of IMA states, “The project will play the role of a catalyst
in the involvement of medical professionals, especially private
practitioners…in establishment of DOTS centers at the clinics and hospitals run
by them.” According to medical practitioners, the online registration of
patients gets neglected at private hospitals. Irregular intake of medicine
under DOTS could lead to TB becoming drug-resistant, limiting the scope of
treatment. Hence, IMA centres across the country are supposed to ‘improve and
advance the diagnosis of TB and contribute to early treatment, with improved
prognosis and outcome’ at private hospitals.
“With their involvement in RNTCP, doctors are
expected to make it more convenient for patients (and their families) to access
TB treatment through medical service providers, and timings, of their choice,”
says the IMA website.
Talking to Mirror, Dr Ashoke Kanodia, the project
co-coordinator said, “Through this project we want to involve private
practitioners for better implementation of RNTCP”.
However, the project in the city is focussed at
Civil, which is a government hospital, and BJ Medical College. This despite the
fact that the city gets 80 per cent of TB patients from across Gujarat and some
neighboring states and a large number of them receive treatment at private
hospitals.
Civil complex already has a TB hospital. As the
professors at BJ Medical College have considerable expertise in this field, a
workshop on the disease at the college becomes redundant, points out a BJ
faculty member.
In Ahmedabad, the project was launched in 2010 with
the aim to decrease the mortality rate related to TB.
This year it started on November 13 at BJ Medical
College. When Mirror approached Dr Smita Shah, the current AMA president, she
said the workshop will continue at the college till November 26 and that AMA
does not have any plan to conduct workshops at private hospitals.
When asked as to why is the programme confined to a
non-focus hospital and college, Dr Smita Shah handed over the phone to her husband
Dr Bharat Shah who is the dean of the college. “Civil provides free treatment
to TB patients. Most of the patients come here instead of going to private
hospitals. Hence, we have arranged the workshop in the college for those who
treat these patients,” said Dr Bharat Shah.
“There are two or three private hospitals where IMA
is conducting the workshop,” he added, but could not provide the names of those
hospitals.
“The question that we want answered is why are
professors of all departments asked to attend the workshop? Do all the
departments provide treatment to TB patients? And why is the focus only on BJ
Medical College?” asked a senior faculty member.
Alist of session for all departments has been
circulated among the faculty members. And their participation in the workshop
has been made compulsory.
Said another faculty member, “Professors are forced
to attend the session every day in the afternoon leaving their classes. We have
spent several years in gaining expertise in medicine. Instead of spending
recourses on us they should use them in private hospitals for better regulation
of TB.” According to college faculty members, photographs and proceedings of
the workshop will be sent to IMA to show AMA is implementing the project
efficiently in the city.
“This is for the first time that a nongovernment body
has been allowed to lecture to medical experts at a government college. This is
misuse of power and all this is to favour the current AMA president,” added
another faculty member.
IMA General Secretary Narendra Shini did not take
Mirror’s calls despite several attempts.
DRUG-RESISTANT TB HIGHEST IN GUJARAT
Gujarat has the highest number of multi-drug
resistant TB in India with 88 deaths in 2011. Moreover, the state ranks seventh
in the number of deaths in first-line TB. In 2012, as many as 3,808 deaths were
reported in the state. The figures for 2013 and 2014 are yet to be reported.
It is expected that with the achievement of a
`critical mass', in terms of medical service providers involved in RNTCP, there
will be a widespread endorsement of DOTS and ISTC by professional medical
associations and individual practitioners, including those outside the
membership of the IMA. With greater acceptance and spread, the treatment of TB
would be uniform, rational and evidence-based. This would contribute to a
decrease in the burden of disease and improved national productivity.
No comments :
Post a Comment