In this entry of Doctor Diaries, Dr. Jaison Philip recounts a personal story that changed his willingness to serve as a medical professional in rural India.

This a personal anecdote in response to a question published on a popular, online question-and-answer platform.

Why do Indian doctors refuse to work in villages?

Statutory warning-Long answer ahead. I was posted as PHC medical officer at Government PHC, Reddipalayam, Kanchipuram (next to Palur),Tamil Nadu in the ‘90s. This ‘PHC' was a single room of 12 feet × 8 feet. No bathroom. No roof (all of us brought an umbrella during the monsoon). Alongside me worked 7 young nurses, 6 health inspectors, and a pharmacist. No space for all employees to even stand inside the hut that was our hospital that had electricity for 6 hours a day. Every day my nurses used to fight sexual predators in the village.

One day, a 24-year-old newly-married lady doctor was posted for ‘camp' duty at my PHC. After some time, she asked me with some hesitation, “Sir, I need to go to the bathroom. Can you help?” I was extremely embarrassed. There was no bathroom in the ‘single-room hospital’, and it was a village where most households had never seen a bathroom. Wringing my hands, I requested one of my nurses to make some ‘arrangements’.

I used to rent a house at the nearest town Chengalpet, take a bus to the nearest dropping point and walk around 5 kms through bushes infested with snakes and bandits (no roads), to get to the hospital. I am a well-built male. But what about lady doctors- appetising?

In the neighbouring village, another young lady medical officer used to work for as long as she could hold her bladder, treat patients and then go home. A senior officer, who had made sexual overtures towards the beautiful doctor, deliberately made a ‘surprise’ inspection after ensuring that the lady doctor had left, and got her suspended.

The then health secretary of the state, sent me a memo,asking me why I was not conducting deliveries in my PHC. Being the eternal rebel, I sent a strong reply to the bureaucrat demanding an apology. Through post (those were pre-internet days), I sent him photographs of the PHC, along with a description of the ‘hospital’ inviting him to visit the hospital and asking him whether in those circumstances, he would send his wife or daughter for delivery in this roofless hut, that was called hospital.

Naturally, the bureaucrat was enraged. I was transferred to an even worse village, and also got my first BNBR (be nice, be respectful)!

…….Tell me, if this is how society treats doctors, how do you realistically expect doctors to work in rural areas? Doesn't a doctor need basic working conditions, quarters, physical security, hygienic food, clean potable water, a decent salary, basic relaxation needs, or at least a bathroom? Will an Assistant Engineer of the electricity department work in this village? An MBA graduate? An IAS officer? Why should a doctor?

This story was originally published on May 17, 2019.