Patients of Language

God knows why do these doctors use an alien language to throw impression on patients

Hakeem Irfan

Last year I happened to visit nearly every “big” hospital of the Srinagar city and stayed for some days. It was a life time experience, that too when I was not patient myself. I witnessed a lot of incidents, harassments, compromises and what not. But here I share a few of common concern.

Here I am not to talk about the infrastructure which is pathetic. I am not talking about the dogs patrolling the corridors in a very reputed hospital. The technicians who themselves recommend to go for the test outside the hospital in some private lab. The patients who wait for their X rays for hours together and in the end get a blurred horror picture which looks more like a monster than the organ itself. I am not referring to the new “corruption beats” created in the name of “entry fee” and “gate keeping”. The “political patients” for whom, side rooms and “special caretaking cell” comes into being immediately after their entry in a government hospital. The ground staff who intimidate you if they are not given a proper “niyaaz”. I am not here to refer to an incident when a patient from a village with critical orthopedic injury was left for 25 days without operation while a relative of an officer was operated the same day she came to the hospital and that too by the doctors who were on leave otherwise.

I am not talking about the brand of medicine available in the hospitals and those recommended by the doctor which is a complex intermingle of interests of MR’s, Distributors and Doctors like the chemical composition of the medicine itself. Not to talk about the Doctors who take more care about their dressing pattern and walking style in the hospital corridors (as if on the ramp) like celebrities. It is not their fault, “Star Plus effect” and other programs have marred the essence of this noble profession where personal stories are overshadowing the patients care. Actually I want to talk about the “patients of language” in the hospitals. Doctors have to specialize in the public relations as well. But the scenario here is different.

When I heard the dialogue between a doctor and a common Kashmiri patient, nearly 70% of words used by a young doctor are from Urdu and English language which is alien to many of the Kashmiri patients visiting these government hospitals. Once in a ward during doctors round an attendant pointed towards me and said “please be here with me as doctors are on round and I could not understand their English and Urdu, I am feeling linguistically handicapped from a week now which is affecting my patient”.

Next time if a Kashmiri is admitted to a hospital he or she has to be familiar with these two languages or hire a translator for getting effective treatment. Is our new generation of doctors linguistic patients themselves? Or they think of using common Kashmiri parlance below their dignity and job profile. Hospitals are institutions for the wellbeing of “aam admi” and we have every right to question if things are not going in a proper direction.