ECHS: ESM experience at R & R

A sad, self explanatory mail from Veteran Jawahar Kaul is forwarded herein. To say the least, the negative, arrogant attitude of the the Senior Advisor Surg & Ortho needs to be condemned in the strongest terms. That having been said, clarifications about WHO is to look after the ESM needs to be clearly spelt out. If cost constraints compel directionalizing ESM to R&R, then this high brow attitude needs to be checked. IF NOT, ideally I would recommend retention of the option with ESM as to whether he wishes to be referred to RR or to an empanelled hospital. BOTH in Delhi and in NCR polyclinics. Shuttling between Polyclinic, R&R, empanelled hospital etc seems CRUEL.
With Warm Regards,
Col RP Chaturvedi
Coordinator, IESM ECHS Division,

From: Jawahar Kaul
Date: Sun, Jan 31, 2010 at 9:53 AM
Subject: Fwd: ECHS
My dear Colonel Chaturvedi,
I must express my deep sense of gratitude to you for the selfless service that you have been rendering to entire community of veterans. Your contribution in strengthening the IESM movement, arranging blood donation camps and organ donation are praise worthy.

As always it was pleasure talking to you on the phone yesterday. I wish to share with you my personal experience for the treatment of my wife. The aim is to sensitise the environment so that the system improves for the good of all concerned.

My wife Mrs Asha Kaul, aged 64 has been having a chronic knee problem for the last few years. She was refereed to R & R on 14 oct 08 and Col (Now Brig), Senior Advisor (Surg & Ortho) then advised total knee replacement of both knees. My wife was not prepared for the major surgery and opted to keep trying other options. The problem over a period time got aggravated and she is not able to bear the pain any longer. She was referred again to R & R on 27th Jan 2010. Since my wife was unable to move, I proceeded to R&R on 28th jan 2010 after fixing an appointment with Brig EDITED, the same specialist who had earlier examined my wife and recommended total knee replacement.

Brig EDITED expressed his reservations in recommending the surgery at an empanelled hospital. The discourse with Brig EDITED lasted nearly one and half hours. Most of the time I was at the listening end. He expressed his distress in dealing with veterans, their requirement for special treatment, and for over riding priority. He felt that ESM community is not loyal to the institution of service, has more expectations from the system than they deserve and having contributed a very paltry sum towards group insurance and expecting too much in return and so on. He felt that retired officers were exploiting the system at the cost of retired PBOR and so on. The last straw was that in case my wife opted to be treated at an empanelled hospital, quoting Brig (NName witheld) "Gates of R & R would be closed to us for ever" and he repeated this three times during the conversation. This in my opinion is a very harsh statement to be made and deserves appropriate response. There was no provocation from me what so ever to hear so much. It is an indication of attitude towards the community of ESM.

I did my best to dispel the wrong impressions from the mind of Brig EDITED. I tried to explain to him the concept behind the launch of ECHS, need for empannelment of private hospitals , the views expressed by DGAFMS at various forums of how the system has been over stretched by the extra load of Veterans, the deliberations of IESM on this subject and so on and the need for him to think very objectively.

I thought I must share my experience for the larger good of the veterans community.
Warm regards,
Brig J L Kaul (Veteran)