Trust Healthcare at Home

Healthcare is not for the faint hearted. The margin of error in healthcare is minimal and God forbid if you're a doctor..the margin is none! 

From burning our youth as a fuel to books, from sleepless nights to stressful work hours we do it all. From treating a patient to letting a patient become like family the journey continues.

I always tell my patients that the happiest person on the patient's recovery is not the patient or his/her kin but the doctor him/herself. But somehow your doctor is not good enough for you sometimes!

I also always tell my colleagues that I am blessed with the best patients. They love me, respect me and shower me with duas ( apples and walnuts also at times :).

The purpose of this small write up, if I may call it so, is an observation I've made in patients, generally, in Kashmir. Over my work period of 8 years in the Valley, I've seen a concept in a small but significant percentage of patients that an "outside state"( "nebrim") doctor is more competent. Is it really so??

I've worked for many years outside the state, done my graduation and post-graduation too. I've worked in different parts of the country so when I speak I speak from a neutral point. 

When I shifted to Kashmir in 2017 after spending time and working in the best hospitals and healthcare systems of the country, to be honest I was also sceptical and a little biased. I had left Kashmir at a tender age of 19 years so I didn't know what to expect back home. I was a child of turmoil and my school days weren't a rosewalk. To my surprise when I saw the tremendous work being done by our local doctors here I was at a loss of words.. the expertise, the skill, the infrastructure.. despite the load.. brilliant!

Not just work but work with empathy. Look at SKIMS, look at SMHS, children's hospital.. look at the prime private healthcare infrastructure...the tremendous work done, it's humongous!

Call me biased but I feel we have some of the best doctors in the country here in the Valley. Their expertise is at par with any top institution in the country or world wide.

Ok, so what am I aiming for by making this point?

Well, a simple message, issued in public interest, that you don't need to travel outside and spend from your nose to get good medical care. Everything is available, at a much affordable rate in your own home. You are unnecessarily burdening yourself and your patient with travel expenses, travel fatigue, accommodation expenses and anxiety of being in unfamiliar surroundings. You can utilise this time and money on primary care and treatment of patients. Even the private sector is empanelled with the Golden card/Ayushman scheme and surgeries are covered under the same.

When I sometimes encounter a patient who has travelled to the South or Centre of a country for a simple refraction, I don't know whether to laugh or cry. Or when a patient travels to ten different places in the country spending money and time to get a second opinion, only to come back home because the opinion was just the same.

Having said this, there are times when patients actually need to be referred outside for some treatments. At those instances your doctor will refer you without wasting time. And yes we have brilliant doctors who are giants in their fields in the country and abroad. But I still believe the treatment is the same at your home with comfort and ease.

So shun the myth of "nebrim" / outside and have a little belief in your treating physician.

Whether you believe it or not, Doctors everywhere are working with a sole aim to make you better, to treat you better.

Yes, whether you believe it or not!

Wishing you health in abundance 

A Kashmiri Doctor.

Dr Shazia Shafi is a Senior Surgeon Cataract and Glaucoma at Dr Agarwals Eye Hospital, Srinagar