Why the hospitals in Dhantoli MUST close down

Everyone is made to believe that small hospitals of Dhantoli and Ramdaspeth are the cause of woes for the congested roads and miseries of residents.

So true !

Let all these hospitals of these areas be closed down . No need of such monstrous hospitals which turn the city in to hell . Let these  be relocated to a nearby isolated place  which is free of human inhabitation say fifty kilometers away from Nagpur.

So , you think that the woes of residents will end ! You are in a fools paradise , dear friend.

Till 40 years ago , plots admeasuring  ten thousand sq.feet were occupied by single families with less than 10 members .  These plots have been sold to property dealers , who have constructed multi story buildings with due permission from Nagpur Municipal Corporation ( NMC ) . Now each of these buildings have minimum sixteen  flats ( four flats each floor for a four story building ) , each family has minimum 4 members . Thus  the civic facilities meant for 10 people are utilized by minimum sixty four persons !  None of these buildings have parking facilities enough for  their own occupants , so they are forced to park their vehicles outside their premises on the road.

Eighty percent of these buildings have  commercial establishments in basement and ground floor , like shops , banks , scooter repair shops , marriage halls , car show rooms , restaurants , hotels , beauty parlors , saloons , STD centers , courier services etc . These also harbour coaching , dance  and Yoga classes.  All of them park their vehicles on the road . All of them throw their garbage not in front  of  their own plot but the plot on the  next door  .

With these come vendors sitting on the foot paths with vegetables , washer men , shops ironing clothes , tailors , hot samosa wallahs , shoe , cycle, scooter repair shops , temples , shops of daily needs , puncture repair shops , autos waiting for passengers and off course pan and  tobacco sellers . Where there is human inhabitation , can the  wine shops lag behind ?

Has the NMC given thought about the necessities needed for so many people  before giving permission for construction of  so many buildings ?

The foot paths in Dhantoli simply do not exist. If you wish to go to a park nearby with your toddler baby on a cart , you can not walk on the foot path but on the roads , where  already vehicles are parked. So naturally you have to walk on almost middle of the road with a baby with flowing traffic . Naturally , traffic slows down for your and baby’s safety.

This all is due to improper planning by the NMC .  This is also due to the greed of the property dealers who work hand in gloves with NMC babus.

Now let us go back to small hospitals . Let them all close down and shifted fifty kilometers away. Now if a person has say heart attack , there is maximum possibility of his death before reaching a hospital fifty kilometers away.  A child has acute asthma , or a injury , a pregnant lady with labor pain in the middle of the night ,  no problem sir , just rush fifty kilometers away ! A person with kidney failure needing dialysis thrice a week , simply rush that distance.

Can you imagine the physical and mental torture a person goes through while carrying a sick person . He only prays God that  “ somehow I must reach a hospital , I must see a doctor as early as possible , my wife has labor pain , my child has acute asthma , sister has appendicitis , mother has brain hemorrhage  or father has excruciating chest pain . All of them may die if not taken care of immediately.”

There are minimum five thousand employees working in these small hospitals and clinics , 90% of them are females. They are from nearby areas. All of them will loose jobs if these hospitals close down.

Small hospitals means less charges. Most of these hospitals do charity and also hold free public education and health camps.

Alternative to private small hospital are  Government hospitals which are doing yeomen services in a most difficult situation with resource crunch .

Other alternative is off course corporate hospitals , which a middle class family with limited earning can not afford without health cover insurance.

The fact is very simple ; the doctors of Dhantoli and Ramdaspeth areas have become easy scapegoats . Common residents are made to believe that doctors are responsible for all their woes.

Answer lies in stopping all new constructions with high rise more than two floors , immediate repair of roads and foot paths , keeping foot paths free of pot holes , proper traffic management , constructing  paid parking facilities , proper street lights and indicators , adhering strictly to no parking norms and towing away vehicles in no parking zone with heavy fine , heavy fine for throwing  garbage on the road  , strict actions on the developers who put building material on roads , close down unauthorized pan and tobacco shops . These are simple but effective ways if followed honestly.

Make it mandatory for each developer to maintain greenery in each plot for controlling pollution and also rain water harvesting besides solar power arrangements  should be a must before giving permission for any constructions.

Once these have been done , then ask doctors to close down their small hospitals and go away . After all no one needs them any way !

( Author is nephrologist practicing in Dhantoli since last two decades)