Resetting outcome targets of community surgery camps: The case of the Chhattisgarh tragedy

State-driven community surgery camps have been organised in India for nearly five decades. Despite their being extremely beneficial to people not having ready access to surgical healthcare (SHC), they continue to be mired in controversies because of negative consequences following free surgery, eg blindness following cataract surgery; infection/death following tubectomy/vasectomy. While the onus of complications during and following surgery camps is commonly ascribed to deficient camp infrastructure/facilities; the contribution of the tendency to achieve high-frequency targets, ie to-do-more-surgery-in-less-time to the problem; continues to escape public scrutiny. Ironically, even the significant and multiple morbid events during surgery camps only evoke a transient public outcry, reflective professional criticism, hyper-media whimpers, and legal turbulence; before fading completely from public memory. This viewpoint piece, by taking into consideration the various ethical burdens that assail community surgery camps (13 deaths in the Chhattisgarh tragedy of 2014, as a case in point); aims to deconstruct inadequate SHC systems and conflicted surgery targets seeking promotion and fame. It also suggests remedial measures to address the problems, especially in terms of identifying a valid end-point for successful surgery, ie surgery completion or surgery outcome; and how the media, polity, professional fraternity, and executives could reorient themselves to respond more sensitively to problems, for the benefit of the patients and community at large.

The study of bacterial flora of different types in hospital waste: evaluation of waste treatment at Aiims Hospital, New Delhi.

Bio-medical waste management rules were formulated in response to the worldwide public concern over medical waste. The practice of separation into different types of waste in health care institutes should be evaluated more scientifically. Due to a lack of data from the Indian sub-continent, this study was initiated at a tertiary care hospital. Samples were collected from different types of waste at the hospital, at different time intervals, for microbiological evaluation. The results reveal that the microbial flora isolated from infectious waste and general waste from the hospital are similar. The samples from general waste in this study reveal many types of pathogens. The bacteria present in the waste initially was low in quantity, but they replicated rapidly over time so that significant numbers were detected by 24 hours, due to environmental factors which were favorable for growth during this period. This study strongly suggests that waste should be removed from the hospital within 24 hours of its generation to prevent environmental contamination caused by any accidental spillage of waste. General waste generated in the hospital should be treated similar to infectious waste, as it can be equally hazardous.

Role of nursing in modern blood banking [in a tertiary level hospital].

With the emergence of Transfusion Medicine Department the definition of Blood Bank has changed. Today, it is not just a bank to collect & issue blood, it prepares and supplies individual blood component, to the patients as and when the need arises during the course of treatment. The planning & management of any blood bank depends on number of functions it is required to serve and the number of units of demand of blood & blood products. This has also changed the role of nursing from skilled nursing care to managing the blood bank services. Hence, there is a need for the nursing personnel to know about the recent advances in planning and management of transfusion medicine, so that they can handle this dual responsibility as a Nurse and a manager.