I began my career about 5 years earlier In the present town which is no different from the rest of India ( may be it is among the better, in terms of its political stability, compared to some other parts of the country). I was then looking out for a place where there were no neurosurgeons and the service was needed. Having little funds to start with I was looking around for association with other setups of acceptable standards where neurosurgery could find some respectful place. I was well aware about the hurdles that were likely, since this was a new service dealing with a very sensitive part of the body.
Thinking retrospectively – I should have asked myself – Why is it that it took 2005 for a neurosurgeon to come to this small on the highway town?
I was motivated to leave the city by some of my senior colleagues. Dr Rituraj Yadav was my lecturer who had moved of to Nanded and started the service successfully way back in 1998, Dr Umesh Gadpal started work in Akola (any body familiar with this state of India know the geographic adversities of these places). Dr Ghadpal is well established and presently in the process of major expansion. My closest colleague , Dr Gopal Sharma settled in Nawasher, Panjab and now in the process of expanding his hospital. I still remember my professor Dr DA Palande , mentioning the need for us residents to get basic neurosurgical training so that the patients need not have to come far to the city hospital. Lastly and probably the most important motivation came from Prof BK Misra during my post qualification training at Hinduja hospital, when at the end of 18 months, he told me to go ahead and practice what I had learned. These teachers and colleagues motivate young doctors like us to gather the courage and start challenging work like Neurosurgery in a completely new area. I never had a technical problem. Advice and technical support are easily available from Indian masters with no difficulty.
But then why and where is the problem because of which Medical progress in the smaller towns is staggeringly slow?
Is it that the smaller towns are hostile to new doctors? – Not at all. Though it does take some time for people to accept a new service, it is gradually well recognized.
Are the bigger towns a reason for the backward state of the smaller towns? Maybe to some extent. Commission based practice, which is an extension of the local commerce practice, becomes the IQ limit of many colleagues from neighboring towns instead of actually improvising on innovativeness or quality service. But I realized that a little tolerance to such nuisance and continued focus on our service is logically a good solution to maintaining popularity in this land of icons and gods.
THEN WHERE IS THE CORE PROBLEM??