The unmet need of our healthcare system.

The unmet needs of a chronic illness ..That our mainstream health systems are unable to meet.

-I-

I was 38 and as energetic as a 30 years old can be. I had just finished organizing a mega charity health camp for a social organization I am affiliated to, when my fasting blood sugar read 297. I didn’t believe it. How can it be ?

But that was the beginning of an alliance with an illness which will shadow me for the next 50 years. Which will shape my lifestyle, my food habits, my share of stress and strain till both of us leave this planet. My closet companion for half a century. Amazing.

All of us at some point in our lives will face a chronic serious illness that causes us to lose control.

We’ll see our functions decline, some of us will see our cognition decline, we’ll be no longer able to care for ourselves and do the things that we want to do. Our bodies will betray us, and in that process, we’ll lose control. And that’s scary.

Many of our palliative care patients ( End stage renal disease, terminal cancer patients  ) are facing illnesses that will end their lives someday. Naturally​ they have a lot to be frightened of — pain, nausea, vomiting, constipation, fatigue and of course their impending death.

But what scares them more than anything else is this possibility that at some point, tomorrow or a month from now, they’re going to lose control of their health, of their lives, of their healthcare.

They’re going to become dependent on others simply for going to the loo for passing stool or urine , and that’s terrifying.

II

My servant told me that he needs to go to his village to bring his father here. His father was suffering from back pain for years. Probably he will bring him to me for consultation. But no. There is no relief with years of allopathic treatment. His father can only be cured by a touch of Baba Aratatran who is bestowing his divine cure only two blocks away.

It was news for me. This is one of the posh residences in Bhubsneswar. But lately, I see a crowd gathering two blocks away from my home on Saturdays. I have never enquired the details. That day I carefully noted the scene. A huge crowd snaking it’s way from the adjacent slum into our push colony. Even a push cart of green coconut was doing brisk business. ( pics below.)

That kept me thinking. There’s certainly an unmet need that our billion dollar health management system is keeping wide open for such faith healer to sneak in. These are always  chronic, intractable conditions for which our system doesn’t have a solution. Nobody goes to baba for cure of typhoid or UTI. Our solutions are adequate there.

We default at three counts in chronic conditions apart from money.

1. Communication: Because we doctors have lots of degrees after our name, because we’re experts, because we’re chief medical officers of a large healthcare system, we think we know all there is to know about how to meet these patients’ needs. But it seems these faith healers can empathize with them more, communicate better than us and most importantly, they can reset their targets to achievable goals. That improves the satisfaction level and increases the sticking factor.

2. Time: Most of the time, suffering people need a bit of hand holding. Chronically ill need it more. These faith healers share quality time with them, infuse confidence in them. On the other hand, the more lingering is the illness, the less time we give. We cannot afford to waste time for them. Alas, these people need only our time. Often they are experts in their conditions more than us.

3. Support: Often, Large crowd that is waiting for consultation is our biggest headache. But they are the biggest assets in faith healing. The more, the better. They tell them about who they are, why they are coming here again and again, what helps them, how it helps them, and to give all advice and suggestions. These waiting rooms really are a hive of interaction, advice and support.

Thus ‘Baba Aratatran’ resets their goals that will let them manage their health in a way that was productive and efficient and effective and comfortable for them. That will give them control over their life and over their health.

It was all up to us, to empower the chronically ill to take control of their health. What we cannot cure, at least we can help them endure.