A country like India needs enhanced primary Healthcare services and more General Practitioners who know the health and nutrition needs of their community. The Cuban model provides a good example of how the needs of everyone, including the poorest, can be met. Cuba has so many doctors, some are even sent to serve in foreign countries. Recently they went fearlessly to Italy to assist the healthcare system that was overwhelmed by the ongoing Covid-19 crisis.
The practice of medicine is a calling, not a profession and should therefore be delinked from competition. Young people ought to know that any healthcare practice involves long hours with hard work and should attract such a calling, a desire to serve, selflessly and answerable foremost to the community. Perhaps Covid-19 is a blessing in disguise for it will separate the goats from the sheep and ensure honor to the medical profession by culling out those who are fearful and motivated by self interest or grandiosity. Good doctors understand responsibility better than privilege and practice accountability better than business. Hippocrates himself said’ Where the art of medicine is loved, there is also a love for humanity.’ Doctors need to understand the role of both nutrition and human physiology in healing and maintenance of health. Ironically more weightage is given to pharmacology over nutrition and human physiology. The latest research in immunology points out that natural immunity plays a very big role in human health. Prevention is always better than cure. According to industry data, most of the genetically engineered (GE) crops planted worldwide are designed for use with chemical herbicides and contain insecticides which are proven to cause cancer. Politicians have been complicit in this systemic rot that has pervaded society. We as Civil society too have become increasingly mindless in our pursuit of gross consumerism and reckless abuse of the environment. Rather than merely extracting the wealth created by others, wealth creators must respect and give due recognition and just rewards to the wealth makers. It is only in this happy equilibrium that the economy can be revived and the social and human wellbeing of the poor, needy and vulnerable uplifted. Our country has built its economy and great corporate wealth on the backs of the poorest laboring classes. One survey pointed out that farmer suicides are largely related to healthcare debt. Farmers have switched to monocropping and cash crops. Left vulnerable to seasonal fluctuations and loan sharks, their diet is often reduced to dry chappatis and chillies. That's the reality of India, the people who feed us go hungry themselves, so it's no wonder that they are so sick. Yes, to err is human, but to wantonly err is beyond criminal. Aires Rodrigues Advocate High Court C/G-2, Shopping Complex Ribandar Retreat, Ribandar – Goa – 403006 Mobile No: 9822684372 Office Tel No: (0832) 2444012 Email: [email protected] Or [email protected] You can also reach me on Facebook.com/ AiresRodrigues Twitter@rodrigues_aires www.airesrodrigues.com
