We have to break the myth hospital means allopathic

Dr Niloy Adhikary BHMS.

It is important to start homoeopathic hospital in every district of the state as in Kerala, co-location of homoeopathic unit with the existing hospital is not good – author explain the concept of a good Homoeopathic hospital. 

What is hospital?
Hospital is an institution providing medical treatment and nursing care for the sick or injured people.

In allopathic system we see there is multidisciplinary approach to tackle a patient .Medicine is one of them. Surgery is another part.

Many cases need only follow-up, rest & nursing care. Some cases need immediate manipulation. There are some cases need instrumentation and some cases paramedical help etc. This could be provided in our homoeopathic hospital also very nicely than the allopathic hospital with minimum cost and by avoiding the adverse effects of allopathic drugs.

Effective running of more homoeopathic hospital will explore the areas of treatment, research, teaching, learning, confidence level, employment, monitory savings, distribution of human resource etc, along with gentle healing.

Every hospital render its service through three ways 1^st is OPD(including peripheral), 2^nd is EMERGENCY, 3^rd is IPD.

From the homoeopathic point of view I think 7/8 outpatient department is sufficient to deal all kinds of patient—1.General—a) acute b) chronic  2 .Pediatric OPD  3. Women’s clinic  4. Geriatric clinic  5. Surgical 6. Physical medicine—Physiotherapy, Acupuncture. 7. Yoga. 8. Eye. (Psychiatry dept. could be added further)

Most of the cases could be served by OPD but some cases need admission in IPD for observation, monitoring, manipulation, frequent treatment etc. including surgical & those cases need regular physiotherapy or Acupuncture or some yoga therapy. (Here I want to point out one fact, if we want to integrate physiotherapy(especially electro therapy) or Acupuncture etc. we should chalk out a plan to implement these therapies that should not interfere with the action of our homoeopathic remedy.)

According to my opinion the following cases can be admitted in Homoeopathic  IPD.—

1. Acute febrile syndrome  in case of children.
2. Acute abdomen—Peptic ulcer, Cholecystitis, Pancreatitis, Appendicitis, Typhlitis, Perityphlitis, Colitis, Oophoritis, Obstructed hernia, Intestinal obstruction etc.
3. Acute diarrheal disease, prolapsed piles or prolapsed thrombosed piles.
4. Acute phase of bronchial asthma and other COPD, cases of frequent haemoptysis, exaggerating case of URTI especially in case of children.
5. Japanese encephalitis, Dengue, Malaria etc.
6. Diseases related to  musculoskeletal  system  like Rheumatic fever, PID(prolapsed intra vertebral disc), GB (Gullen Berry) syndrome, during the severe pain of Rheumatoid arthritis, osteoarthritis  cases—patient may be admitted for few days for physiotherapy and complete analysis of the case. Some cases of simple fracture.
7. Cardio vascular/brain—Myocardial infarction, CVA patient with severe hypertension, patient with severe headache.
8. Patient with severe chest pain.
9. Renal or excretory system including prostrate—Glomerulonephritis, -acute kidney failure or acute kidney injury , anuria, acute retention of urine, Renal colic ,ureteric colic, urethral colic, urethritis  etc, BPE –acute retention of urine where catheterization may be needed.
10. Injury cases where immediate immobilization is needed.
11. Some suspected cases of malignancy to confirm the diagnosis and for the selection of similimum following the rule of detail case taking, hospital admission for 1or 2 days or according to the situation is necessary.

This is the short list. The on duty medical officer or doctors of OPD & emergency can admit any patient when the situation demands or when they think that yes this case need close observation.

Some case demands bed rest, frequent medication, doctor’s supervision and nursing care.

In homoeopathic hospital labor room & OT should be ready all time under efficient doctor & in charge. There should be provision of surgery for the true surgical diseases under engaged dedicated surgeon. That surgeon must have faith on homoeopathy. That surgeon will allow preoperative & post operative homoeopathic medicine and he will apply least amount of allopathic drug. (Minor surgical cases need no antibiotic.)

Here I want to share few practical experiences related with this topic. These are best to manage in indoor.

Case no 1.—One of my old patient suddenly came to my clinic with head injury. There was  profuse bleeding from the scalp followed trauma to head by running fan blade . As the patient have much faith on homoeopathy and upon me, she thought I could manage the case. I had seen there was tear in the scalp. I first assured her- “don’t fear”. I first cleaned the area , then cut off some hair adjacent to cut area. The I gave 3 to 4 stitches with  silk thread ,then I bandaged the area with  Calendula Q. Internally I gave her single dose of Arnica 200 & Hypericum 200 for next day along with Nihilinum for 7 days. I told her to come to my clinic after 7 days to cut off stitches. The patient had no such trouble with in these 7 days & the cut end joined nicely.

Case no  2.—A boy of 15 years came to me with his father. The case was diagnosed as  appendicitis by a surgeon and advised for admission in a hospital for appendectomy. His father took his boy to me for 2^nd opinion and to know is there any scope in homeopathy to avoid operation. There was pain in right lower abdomen and near umbilicus with temperature little high. During examination I found tenderness in the Mc.Burney’s point & Hyperaesthasia over Sherren’s triangle. I told them the diagnosis was right. Igave our medicine(2 doses(fraction) of Iris Tenex200and Rubrum),  also  told them-  surgery could be avoided but it needs close observation. As there is lack of homoeopathic hospital or nursing home ,they have no other alternative to take home and time to time report of the status of the patient. I warned the patient party, if there was any deterioration of the condition of the patient they have to admit this patient in hospital. Next day they reported the intensity of the pain was less, temp same and the following day no pain or temperature. The patient was well in all respect.   Then I told the them to came to my clinic after ¾ days for recheck up. During the next visit I observed the patient was smiling, no pain or uneasiness in the abdomen. On examination no tenderness in the Mc. Burney’s point .That time the boy had been saved from abdominal cut by the grace of homoeopathy. There after till today no more attack or any such complaint. I had seen this case 5 years before.

Case no 3.—A case of prolapsed Intravertibral disc with tremendous pain in low back with sciatic syndrome. Patient first visited the allopathic doctor but got no relief. Pain was so severe patient scarcely able to move. This type of case need complete bed rest. Traction is helpful. I gave one homoeopathic remedy and advised him to strictly follow my advice.  Within 7days patient completely recovered from his illness.

Case no 4.—A case of Benign prostatic enlargement with retention of urine for more than 15 hours. Patient came to my clinic at night with tremendous pain in bladder and urethra. I first relived the pain by introducing catheter. Then selected the remedy according  to homoeopathic principle. Again I had to catheterization for more 2 to3 times till the favorable action of the remedy ensued.

Case no 5.—A  patient of 18 years with Rheumatic fever came to me 3 years back. There was sudden pain in knee, ankle with fever. The young boy was crying due to pain. Previously he had sore throat. I advised for ASO titre—which was very high. I gave him one homoeopathic remedy and advised him to take bed rest in his home.  I had to communicate with the patient party by mobile phone frequently (I was in little tension with this serious disease) and 2to 3 frequent visit to the patients home. My first prescription was wrong. In the subsequent visit I applied the right remedy, and then the symptoms became gradually favorable. Initially the patient and patient party feared with continuous high temp and sudden lameness due to pain. The neighbors of the patient were advising the patient father take your boy to the allopathic hospital. I assured the patient party- don’t fear, the case will be settled down by our homoeopathic medicine but it will take some time. Ultimately I managed the case. (Note: These types of case need careful selection of remedy, potency, dose, preparation of dose etc.) But it was a tough job for me to convince, as they are (patient party) seeing the patient every minute and expecting relief with in very short time and constant provocation by the visitor. It is difficult to manage such serious case with cool brain in a patient party’s house or private clinic where many gathering, many opinion & many questions.

Case no 6. – A case of Cholecystitis of a patient of 68 years with bow shaped spine rejected by the local allopathic hospital managed by me & continued the treatment till the pain and discomfort completely subsides. She was following treatment since last 3 years. Once she came to my clinic with his son with very prostration, uneasiness, scanty urine & some other discomfort. In the last two days she did not took anything due to nausea and vomiting. During examination I found both blood pressure is very low both systolic   (below 90) and diastolic (below 60). I observed the sign of dehydration. I told the son of that old mother, this case need rehydration therapy by intravenous infusion. This case should be treated in hospital as there is no provision of local homeopathic hospital you have to go to the allopathic hospital but problem is there is no such scope of homoeopathic implementation. As the patient has much faith on homoeopathy, they asked me “sir, is it possible to rehydrate in your clinic”? I replied it is possible but your cooperation is highly needed. Ultimately that case was managed by Dextrose and Ringer lactate solution in my personal clinic.

Case no.7—This case was of the year 2001 when I was house staff of my Institution (Burdwan Homoeopathic Medical College & Hospital). Then the hospital bed was filled with many patients. Hospital operation theatre was frequently engaged with some surgical cases admitted by the then our teacher cum surgeon Dr. Chabi Maity. Once he operated one case in the early part of the day with abdominal incision, as he was a allopathic doctor he gave antibiotic, pain killer and some other drugs. Duty sisters followed his advice. On that particular date I had night duty, I was in my duty room. On that day no M.O. was present. At mid night the sister called me to see the case, as there was tremendous pain along the incision area. In spite of all allopathic drugs as per the direction of the surgeon, the sister failed to gave relief to the patient. As there was surgery with many tiny nerves had been cut off, the medicine Hypericum came to  my mind. I advised the nurse to give Hypericum 200 one dose. I was astonished to see with in ½ an hour to 45 minutes the pain relived and the rest of the night the patient did not disturbed the other patient & slept well.

Case no 8.—A case with old & cold big cyst in the back since last 7/8 years, taken many homoeopathic & ayurvedic remedy but no result. After considering the totality of symptoms I prescribed single homoeopathic remedy, within one month patient felt pain in cystic area. After the 2^nd prescription pain increased more with white spot in the centre (pus point) followed by little pin pointed discharge. The top area was soft and tender. To cut short the case I incised the cyst following the Hilton’s method. The cheesy pultacious material came out, at the end stage I introduced roller gauge socked with calendula mother tincture. I dressed the operated cyst. The cut margin healed by 7 days. There after little occasional oozing continued for more or less 15 days. It took more 2/3months for complete cure.

However I think this type of case management need hospital admission for few hours to one day.

Note—During surgery no anesthetic drug I given and no antibiotic or any allopathic drug I prescribed after this minor surgery.

From the above discussions I can say there are numerous acute situations could be tackled gently by our Homoeopathic Hospital. Many cases we hand over to the allopathic hand due to lack of indoor and close observation facility, and credit goes to allopathy. Actually high credibility offers by the patient party if we able to manage the acute situation.

So we have to operate our hospital in its real meaningful manner. By the by I want to say that in our homoeopathic hospital also there should be provision to give anti venum drugs and hospital will also be equipped with such facility to manage the toxicological cases.

Side by side there should be good relation with the close allopathic hospital for patient exchange. Some time switch over to the other system brings good result. I think there are many patients occupying the busy allopathic hospital with slow improvement due to chronic underlying cause, if they hand over the case to homoeopathic hospital after initial and essential treatment as per their concern which could be managed by our homoeopathic hospital with low cost and gentle treatment further. But the duty officer in homoeopathic hospital must be cautious about receiving the case. If they receive very bad case with low vitality with less chance to survive may discredit our hospital.

Again during staying in homoeopathic hospital if the condition of the patient becomes deteriorate, the on duty homoeopathic medical officer must consult with the another doctor and if they think this case need better management in some higher centre with multiple facility, they will make an arrangement for the same with helpful manner. Ambulance facility must be there in homoeopathic hospital also.

However, we do not want to restrict homoeopathic treatment only in OPD or private chamber. We do not want to lose more our patient for the simple cause of oxygen, saline, blood transfusion or some auxiliary help.

It is important to start homoeopathic hospital in every district of the state as in Kerala, only co location of homoeopathic unit with the existing hospital is not enough.

Another important thing is for the effective running of our hospital we need dedicated, helpful, energetic, enthusiastic, ambitious, passionate, progressive doctor, who must have instinct to uphold our neglected Homoeopathy. Govt. must allot fund for the smooth running of homoeopathic hospital. Govt. spent huge money from the independence of India and still spending more money for the allopathic system, if they spent proportionately half amount for the homoeopathic hospital, and research. I do believe the new era in the medical field will come. I also believe one day will come when homoeopathy will show new direction in the medical treatment from our India.

At last I must appeal to the homoeopathic fraternity and Government please nurture and help to grow the possibilities for the welfare of mankind.