People pay when health facilities are neglected

THE shortcomings in public healthcare are now showing up more starkly than ever. Disease burdens are rising and health infrastructure is cracking up in those parts of the country where investments in medical talent and facilities haven’t been made. A case in point is the deplorable state of government-run hospitals in West Bengal. Young and feisty doctors have kept the heat on the Trinamool Congress administration and succeeded in highlighting a long-festering issue.

Why hasn’t a new party like the Trinamool done better at providing efficient health services and taking care of doctors so that they perform at their best? Whatever the answer to that question, the agitating doctors have served the public well by sticking to their guns and making the state government accountable. In this issue we speak to doctors and visit a Kolkata hospital.

Government has a role to play in providing dependable and affordable healthcare because not everyone can afford private services and sickness, we know, can send people tumbling into poverty. Healthcare is also a complex terrain. Cleanliness, nutrition, sanitation, housing and air and water all determine how healthy people will be. There are afflictions that affect large numbers of people but get overlooked.

For instance, presbyopia — on which we have our cover story. There is also our story on the little-known problem of vaginismus which is a cross that a great many women carry. A rising tide of cancer cases deserves better attention. Such concerns should be addressed by medical institutions supported by the government.

We highlight issues pertaining to the mountains again in our interview with Ravi Chopra who believes strongly that the environmental issues in the Himalayas are at a tipping point.

We are also back with a stray dog story. The Delhi High Court has correctly pointed out that the capital can’t be handed over to dogs and monkeys just to please animal lovers. It doesn’t happen this way in cities elsewhere in the world. In this case a disability rights group has gone to court.

Finally, we bring you our columnists and our Living section with an enquiry into toothbrushes, some travel and opportunities to volunteer and donate. We wish our readers a happy and peaceful new year and enjoin you to start it off by giving to many of the good causes that find their way into our pages.