“’The cry of a new born is the most beautiful sound I have ever heard’, my father used to tell me when I was young as I listened to him enraptured. That’s when I decided that even I wanted to be a doctor. And here I am, working late nights in the labour rooms and seeing the joy of a life getting started, says Dr Dhritishna Kalita.
India, with a population of 1.252 billion, has about 9,36,488 registered doctors and apart from the poor doctor-patient ratio, there is just one hospital bed for every 1833 people. The numbers alone portray the sad scenario of the public health care system in India. As this Independence marks the 70th year of our freedom from colonial rule, many such days are needed before we can finally declare ourselves free from malnutrition, disease and poor infrastructure; all the issues that plague our country.
Amidst the dismal picture portrayed by these statistics, doctors continue to paint a more hopeful scene. The real heroes in our nation building, they work tirelessly despite odd working hours, poor infrastructure and spiralling number of patients. Dhristishna Kalita is one such young doctor working in Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed Medical College in the rural district of Joti Gaon, Assam.
“I have rotational shifts. For 15 days I work in the morning shift and rest are night duties, we have no holidays or week-offs as any day can be a critical one. It all depends on what cases we get, somedays the entire day goes in the wards and apart from a 2-hour break, I hardly get any time to breathe. But you know what, the reward is the satisfaction that I see on patient’s faces and the joy of a new born’s family.”
Asked about the challenges in the profession, she points to the poor infrastructure in the area and says, “People keep pointing to the doctor-patient ratio but fail to realise that when medicines, equipments, roads, ambulances and other ‘basic necessities’ are not available, even the doctors cannot do very much.”
Being a government doctor, she understands the subsidised costs of medicines and tests that the government provides to the poor section of the society. “It is true that the government has done its bit to make healthcare services more affordable but still a lot needs to be done. We want to work for the poorest of poor but infrastructure or rather the lack of it becomes a constraint,” says Kalita.
For people like Dr Dhritishna Kalita, this profession is the most rewarding one and she aims to build a better India by doing her bit through her work. Salute to her spirit and all the ‘real heroes of India’.
May her tribe increase!
