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Dharmendrasinh Chavda
AHMEDABAD, July 12: There's good news at hand for those people who find private nursing homes expensive, geographically distant, culturally alien, but are forced to go there because they simply provide better services.
AHMEDABAD, July 12: There's good news at hand for those people who find private nursing homes expensive, geographically distant, culturally alien, but are forced to go there because they simply provide better services.
For their benefit, there's a new trend among non-governmental organisations: They are taking over these maternity homes and giving them a semi-professional touch. For example, the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Gujarat, has decided to take over Parvatibai Maternity Hospital, Dariapur Tower, and plans a cooperative hospital. The IMA also promises to provide cheap and better services.
Similarly, the Chhipa Jamat Welfare Trust has taken over a maternity home in the Jamalpur area.
If it's good news for the patrons, it's good news for the AMC too, because these hospitals were so financially unviable as o be on the verge of closure. ``If good, reliable NGOs come forward, we do not mind handing over these maternity homes,'' says AMC hospital committee chairman Ambalal Kota.
Check out the latest delivery figures at the AMC's maternity homes and you would be forgiven for thinking the family planning programme has at last come good. After all, the number of deliveries performed at these hospitals every year is dropping at an alarming rate, from more than 11,000 in early 1980s to about 6,800 in 1997-98.
``Private establishments are the main reason more and more people are turning away from civic nursing homes,'' says a highly placed source in the AMC.
This, despite the glaring discrepancy in rates: Some private maternity homes situated in the slum areas charge as low as Rs 500 for a normal delivery, while civic nursing homes situated in areas where the city's lower socio-economic groups live do not charge a naya paisa.
``It has become a matter of prestige among the poor people to be treated at private nursing-homes, even if it means borrowing a few hundred rupees,'' explains a health department official requesting anonymity.
Another reason is the custom prevalent among the less well-off that the wife goes to her parents' home for the first delivery. ``The husband and his family often force the wife's people to take admission at a private nursing-home,'' the official said. Besides, most couples now do not want to have more than two-three children, and so do not mind spending a few hundred rupees,'' says an official.
There are also the classic lacunae found in any government-run organisation: attitude of the staff, high rate of absenteeism and timings of the nursing-homes. ``The out-patients' department (OPD) at the civic nursing homes work only between 9.00 am and noon and from 1.00 pm to 3.00 pm whereas patients are handled 24 hours in the private maternity homes, making them a better choice even for those who cannot, strictly speaking, afford them'', says the official.
Congress councillor from Dariapur, Hasankhan Pathan, agrees, saying ``Highhandedness of the staff and poor facilities are responsible for turning the people away from the maternity homes,'' he says.
And so the talk of these nursing homes being financially unviable. ``On an average, the monthly expenditure on each maternity home is about 70,000, which includes salary for 20-odd staff,'' says the official. Last month, the Rakhial maternity home accounted for just nine deliveries against an expenditure of Rs 90,000. This means the AMC spent Rs 10,000 on each normal delivery, a figure Civic hospital committee chairman Ambalal Kota concurs with. Kota believes these maternity homes are not equipped to handle complicated deliveries, and so people prefer to go to the bigger general hospitals. ``They were set up only to handle normal deliveries. To avoid risk at the last moment, people prefer to go to bigger civic hospitals,'' he says. With the NGOs coming to the fore, there's hope yet on the horizon.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
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