Talking about his long association with C R park, Dr Choudhury stated that he was initiated into the area by well known doctor of South Extension, Dr. P K Banerjee, who asked him to take on the responsibility of providing health services in the area. He used to run a Pathology Centre in those days. He first started visiting C R park in 1974 on his bicycle to see patients and would charge Rs. 10 for home visits and Rs 5 if the patient visited his clinic. He stated that in those days there was a different camaraderie with patients as well as other doctors. These days he said, people are busier in themselves; hence there is very little community feeling.
Recalling how medical practice evolved in the area, Dr Choudhury stated that in 70s, while the families of the poor residents in the area would visit Safdarjung hospital for their ailments, majority of the middle class residents preferred to visit Holy Family Hospital for most of their medical requirements. Those who were well off, mainly went to Spring Meadows hospital. Batra hospital which started in 1987, was seen as a costly affair and most Bengalis did not prefer going there.
Talking of some of the legendary doctors of the time, Dr Choudhary recalled the names of Dr Ghosal, Dr Biswas of R K Puram, and Dr Dhar, who practiced for several years in C R Park. Remembering him Dr Choudhary stated that he shared a very close relationship with Dr Dhar and in a way it will not be wrong to state that C R park belonged to Dr Dhar. In terms of Lab and pharmacy facilities, Dr Choudhary recalled some of the popular pharmacies of the time which included, Rai Medicoes, Lakshmi Medicos and Rakheja Medicoes. He also stated that apart from the Labs that were running at Mahila Samiti and Bangiya Samaj, Dr Banerjee’s Lab in East of Kailash was also very popular.
Dr Krishna Sengupta, who turned 87 this year, made C R Park her home in 1973. Initially no one knew about her homeopathy practice, but as people became aware, more and more started appearing at her doorstep for medical support. Working from the premises of her home, initially Dr. Sengupta did not charge any fees. Also, there was no fixed time for seeing patients. People would come whenever they wanted and Dr Sengupta provided her services to everyone, irrespective of the social strata one belonged to. It was only at the initiation of her close friends after some years that she decided to start charging a nominal fee of Rs 2 to her patients and also decided to fix a time for her clinic visit. She however never made any home visits. Over the years, her consultation fee increased to Rs 5 and then to Rs 10 and still remains so. She never had to put a board outside her house. Her patients have remarkeable trust in her expertise and believe strongly that if she takes up a case, the patient is bound to recover. At 87, Dr Sengupta still sees patients every evening during the fix hours of her clinic and continues to enjoy the goodwill that she has earned over the years through her sheer dedication and hardwork.
Dr Sisir Paul, who was initiated into C R Park by none other than Dr Choudhary himself, shifted here in 1973-74 and started his own clinic in 1980. He was one of the first child specialist doctor of the area. Initially he found it difficult to settle here mainly because people could not understand why he would only insist on treating children and would refuse to see adult patients. However, with time, and as people became more aware, he became more settled and was able to stabilize his practice. He was also with the Deshbandhu Memorial Society from 1989 to 1999.
Dr Choudhary also stated that in the early years, people would only go to General Physicians who would then guide the patient in terms of what medical assistance they require. However, with time the requirement for specialists have gone up as the level of awareness and orientation to required health support, amongst people has increased.
Dr Talukdar who has been in Delhi since 1995, however was of the opinion that the increase in call for specialists was mainly because Indians were always trying to ape what was happening in the Western countries. But there is now a realisation in the West that the family Physician is the best person to guide in terms of medical assistance. Dr Talukdar was of the view that this realisation would again come back to the Indian society too.
Similar to Dr Paul, Dr Subroto Kundu, who started his practice in C R Park in 1992, also found it difficult in initial years to set up his practice in the area. He stated that this was because Bengalis in his view were consultancy conscious as majority of them were salaried people. Hence it was difficult to increase consultancy fee. However, he felt that being a Bengali gave an added advantage as Bengalis prefer to go to a Bengali doctor.
Dr Talukdar, who has been in association with Chittaranjan Bhawan for past nine years, chose C R Park to settle as it was a Bengali dominated area. He stated that he saw institutions like the Chittaranjan Bhawan and Bangiya Samaj, play a very vital role in connecting people from all stratas of the society. These institutions were committed to provide services such as health facility at very nominal rates. However, he felt that these institutions were not supported well by the community. These lacked funds and therefore the quality of the services suffered.
In terms of relationship with patients, while Dr Sengupta stated that she had always maintained a very good relationship with her patients, Dr Kundu reflected on the change that has come about in his interactions with his patients. He stated that there was a deeper connection with the earlier patients while nowadays the patients were more like consumers. He stated that this was a reflection of the change that has come upon most social relationships across societies. Also since the consultantion fee was now much higher, patients felt that they need to get services worth the money that they were paying.
Dr Choudhary also felt that the relationship with his patients had changed over the years. Earlier patients, to show their gratitude, would bring food (raw meat, vegetables) to gift to the doctor after rcovery. However, nowadays there was no connect between them. He felt that earlier there was also great camaderie between doctors, but now they hardly knew each other.
In terms of the overall culture of C R park, the doctors were of the view that there was a strong dilution of its culture due to several non-Bengalis also coming in and settling here. They felt that Bengali culture, specifically, its street food, music, art form must be preserved. Otherwise C R park would lose its unique identity of being mini Bengal and will become like any other colony of Delhi.
No comments:
Post a Comment