I had a novel idea, I thought. They used to check patients’ blood pressure and then forget to return the sphygmomanometers to the nurses’ cubboard. Then someone would pull or push something near the instruments and the instruments would fall down and break. It was beyond our means to maintain an adequate flow of new instruments to keep pace with the rate at which they broke them. To overcome this problem, I acquired eight instruments for the labor ward, and fitted them to the walls, one next to each labor bed. Now they had enough instruments, and they could not drop them down. That worked fine until the ward was shifted for repair and renovation. Then without my knowledge the sister-in-charge of the ward shifted everything, but probably thought the instruments were a part of the fixtures and left them behind. The contractor probably thought they were outdated old decorations and threw them away along with the other junk. When we shifted back to the renovated ward, we had no sphygmomanometers.
I acquired a new set through a donation and got them fixed with twisted wire to the labor beds. The fixing would prevent them from being taken away and lost, and also being dropped and broken. It worked for a couple of months, until the sister-in-charge found two of the fixing wires cut and the instruments lying somewhere else in the ward. She complained to me.
“Lodge a manhunt and find the culprit” I said. “If we let it happen and go without punishment, it will keep happening.”
All resident doctors on emergency duty that day were intervied extensively. All other doctors who had patients of their own in the labor ward were also interrogated. No one admitted to the act. A week passed. Then the servants on duty identified an intern who had detached the sphygmomanometers. He admitted he had done it. I called him to talk to him.
“I am sorry sir” he said. That was the standard answer from interns and residents whenever they were caught on the wrong foot.
“But why did you do it?” I asked. “Surely there must have been some sound reason for us to wire the instruments to the labor beds?”
“I had to take blood pressure of a patient and there was no other instrument” he said.
“You could have asked for advice from some senior person” I said.
“It was the middle of the night” he said. As if all qualified doctors had gone to sleep leaving the intern to handle all cases.
“But why did you detach two instruments?” I asked.
“But I detached only one” he said. “It was our emergency …”
“But last Wednesday was not not your emergency” I said.
“It was not a Wednesday. It was a Monday two weeks ago” he said.
So there had been two such episodes. The first one had been covered up. He was being blamed for the second one, poor fellow.
“OK. Did you fix it back to the labor bed after you had finished your work?” I asked.
“No, sir. I am sorry sir” he said.
“Since you admit your mistake, let us make you compensate for it. So far you have caused a loss of four hours of my time, two hours of the sister-in-charge’s time, and one hour each of two other Professors, one Assistant Professor and one Registrar, trying to fix the blame. Let us start with compensation of my time lost. Will you attend a meeting with the Additional Civic Chief at the head office for one hour tomorrow, and another one of PCPNDT advisory committee next week? I am the chairman of that committee. The places of the meetings are air-conditioned. You will get taxi-fare to and fro. The Additional Civic Chief does not offer tea, but the PCPNDT peeople will give you snacks and tea. You should be comfortable.”
He seemed uncomfortable with the idea.
“What is the matter?” I asked. “That is the best way you could make up for my time lost.”
“I could do some clerical work instead” he offered.
“But I don’t do any clerical work myself. You need to do what I do.”
“Um…. I don’t think I can. How can I make decisions in those meetings?” he asked.
“That should not be difficult at all” I said. “If you could make the decision to cut the restraining wires to detach a sphygmomanometer belonging to the hospital, you can make these decisions in meetings quite easily.”
He seemed to get my point and kept quiet.
“OK. Go away. Do not do such things again. If you don’t know what to do in any situation, asked a senior person.”
“Yes sir, sorry sir” he said while beating a retreat.
“Don’t say that and get me started all over again” I said wearily.
