Making affordable healthcare a credo

Is there any premium on being young? Yes, if the person concerned is an achiever. As years shrink, achievements mount.

Dr. Rajkumar is an example. A state ranker throughout his school and college years and a record-holder in the number of medals from Madras Medical College, this young surgical gastroenterologist, recently achieved yet another first: the youngest FRCS examiner in the country.

Though he passed out of the Madras Medical College only in 1985, he has achievements of a lifetime to his credit. Four FRCS degrees and a stockpile of work on the entire spectrum of gastro- intestinal region.

He is egged on, not just by the desire to excel, but also to help people in distress. ``The people of this country need good healthcare, at affordable cost,'' he tells G.Pramod Kumar.

Dr. RAJKUMAR

GOOD QUALITY, modern healthcare, at affordable cost - Dr. Rajkumar keeps referring to this maxim all the time. ``There is still a lot of work to be done''.

This feeling of incompleteness, despite achieving quite a bit since he passed out of MMC, drives him forward to a dream of a multispeciality hospital with specialised care at affordable cost. ``It will happen soon,'' with the best of professionals around.

Dr. Rajkumar, who now heads RIGID Hospital, specialising in Gastro-Intestinal (GI) diseases downplays the uniqueness of being the youngest FRCS examiner. Instead, he talks about the alarming rise in GI diseases and the changing nature of surgical responses. ``At least two diseases, gall stone and colon-rectal cancers are definitely on the rise,'' he says. ``GI cancer too is rising''.

One of the reasons for the GI diseases is changing food habits. ``We are aping the West''. ``High fat diet and not enough fruits and vegetables,'' put the people at heightened risk. The primary answer, hence like coronary artery diseases, is to modify lifestyles and not to overlook early symptoms. ``Don't write off symptoms,'' he cautions. Modern technology helps doctors trace the genesis of these symptoms and respond fast.

Talking of technology, Dr. Rajkumar, drifts to laparoscopy, laser, endoscopic ultrasound, ultrasound knives and so on. Laparoscopy, according to him, has revolutionised surgery in specific areas. It avoids big cuts and cuts down hospital stays drastically. Infections and complications are substantially reduced and above all, the trauma of the operation is minimal.

In laparoscopy, Dr. Rajkumar tends to be ``eclectic,'' to use his own description. He specialises on the entire spectrum of laparoscopic work in the GI area. A common use of this method is for the creation of a valve between the gullet and stomach for people suffering from ``heart- burn''.

Besides its several other applications, laser helps patients suffering from oesophageal cancer, improve the quality of their life, ultrasound-knives (harmonic scalpel, in medical parlance) makes surgery finer and a device called ERCP allows the surgeon go up to the bile duct. ``Technology plays a crucial role in GI surgery,'' he adds. ``We have all the modern gadgets''.

The increasing rise of GI cancer provokes the philanthropic instincts of this surgeon, who does 15 per cent of his work free of cost. As part of his multi-speciality set-up, he wants to set up a GI-cancer ward.

Taking time off his hospital commitments, Dr. Rajkumar, who won the Johnstone Gold Medal in 1985 as the best outgoing student of MMC, conducts medical camps and workshops. Since 1995, he has been consistently organising free camps and laparoscopic surgeries for the plantation workers in Sri Lanka. Charity camps in various parts of South India too is an unavoidable fixture in his annual calendar.

``There is still a lot more to be done,'' he says. ``People are in need''.

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