No Respect For The Departed

PACHU MENON, MARGAO

THE GMC body goof-up case signifies that rot in a system where the administrators entrusted the task of efficiently managing public health services have been conspicuous by their insensitiveness towards the problems of the sick. The situation has now apparently reached a stage where even the dead have to be at their mercy for a decent funeral. While such mix-ups do tend to inspire tales of foul-play and conspiracies, it is the manner in which the blame is passed on to persons in the lowest rung of the hierarchy that is disturbing! Besides, the observation that death tends to rob the dignity and respect accorded to an individual when alive in most hospitals and medical institutions is a sad commentary on the state of affairs. The management of bodies and deceased patient remains sadly continues to go unaddressed as an issue that has significant implications for families, hospitals and the health services of the country. Moreover, as like the reasons blamed in safety incidents involving living patients, failures to follow protocol and procedure, poor communication and informal working practices have contributed to the mismanagement of services in the mortuaries. Hence the suggestion that mortuary errors are avoidable if the deceased receive the sort of management standards given to the living deserves some attention! When it is well-known that misidentification and cataloguing woes beset storage and preservation of bodies in most of the morgues, it is a wonder that no remedial actions were taken at the state’s premier medical institute which boasts of modernisation having touched every aspect of its services. However, the decision to have electronic tagging for bodies at GMC morgue is a belated response to issues that have been demanding immediate attention of the government for quite some time now. While the Januz Gonsalves episode will forever haunt the GMC for the ‘living’ trauma it has brought the bereaved family, the attempts by  Health Minister Vishwajit Rane to reach out to the grieving relatives with  promises did surprise many for the ‘sincerity’ of the whole exercise. Deftly handling the situation, the minister has succeeded in diffusing public tension. Even so, very complacent in its response to such issues, the public apparently does not favour anything beyond candlelight vigils to commemorate the sordid saga!