1000 HIVE, approximately 22,000 BDT. To many, this is a mediocre amount. To some, this is life saving, this is food to survive a few more days in these times of crisis. I'm not lucky enough to be in the first category. But I'm grateful enough to not be in the second category either. I'm somewhere in the middle, searching for a livelihood. I'm what you may know as a middle class. Yes, doctors do not earn a crazy amount of money. Some of them do, 80% of them don't. I'm in that 80%.

Back to the 22k BDT. What would I do with that amount. First instant, similar to a lot of people out there, I thought donate it to a charity to help with the crisis. But divulging into this further over the last week, I came to realize, I'm in a position to provide a service that only a handful of people can provide. A service that is more important now than ever! I believe there are enough people with the pockets deep enough to help put food on the plate for a lot of families struck hard with the CoVid. Even on HIVE, collectively from the BDCommunity we have sent some decent donations for this purpose.

But I realized, not everyone has to do the same thing to serve the community. In fact, everyone focusing on the same aspect of life is actually counter-productive. Food is not the only necessity at this time. People still need healthcare services, now more than ever.

So I have been giving this quite a bit of though and I am seriously considering setting up my own personal chamber. Setting up a fully equipped Chamber for private practice actually requires much more than 22k BDT. But 22k is a good amount to start with the basics, and grow from there.

CoViD is not the only disease people are getting right now. People are still having low back pains don't they! People are still getting injured. People are still having heart attacks. People with liver disease still exists. People who have had heart attacks needing regular follow up still exists. People are still having stroke. CoViD is not the only disease people are suffering from.

But the immensity of the CoViD has had such an impact, and our health system is so saturated, the other departments are taking a hit.

In fact I've come across a lot of people who needs follow up for some other disease, but are scared to go to the hospitals out of fear of catching the corona from some one else. If you haven't seen the hospitals in Bangladesh, they are crazily crowded and the fears of people are completely justified. And because of this fear I have seen people miss important follow ups and there are a lot of diseases in which a simple follow up can be life saving. For the people in my family, and my neighbors, I have been doing these follow ups for free, but not everyone has a doctor in the family.

I have also been treating the people who comes to our house do some household works and their families too. This lady for example, I diagnosed with Rheumatoid Arthritis a couple of weeks back. Now, RA is a disease that presents in a very simple manner. Just some joint pain with a bit of stiffness early in the morning, that improves as the day goes by. Who would risk contracting the corona for this and go to a hospital, right! But what is not possible for people (especially these poor people, who does not have any opportunities for gaining awareness) to realize is that, if treatment is not started ASAP for RA, the deformities that follow will become Permanent and will limit their mobility for the rest of their lives.

This is just one example. There are so many other diseases I could talk about, but this is not the post for that. But I think I have made my point!

Now, the people working for an earning, not everyone will be working at a house with a doctor as well right? This is why I think having a personal chamber is one of the best ways I can provide a service to my community. I can not think of a better idea to make myself available to the entire community.

I have been giving treatment for free for a long time now, so I have no problem continuing that for the people who can not afford to pay the doctor's fees. But there are a lot of people in the community who can, and that will finally generate some stable earning source for me. Oh yes, didn't I mention? I work for zero salary. That's a wonderful (!?) tradition you can find only in Bangladesh! A freshly graduated Doctor needs to work without salary in the name of "Training" until they pass an entrance exam, in which only about 15-30 people pass every year, FROM THE ENTIRE COUNTRY in the department of Medicine! Oh more good news for me btw, that exam might be cancelled this year due to CoViD Lockdown!