Letter-5
Dear Friends,
Greetings and good wishes as you adjust to another two weeks of restrictions on account of COVID 19!
I noticed the three years old guava tree swayed in the wind at night and went to give it a support in the morning. As I kept watching the guavas in the tree, I noticed that most of them were in bunches. Just a few were in singles. That seems to be the natural pattern for the tree. We have another smaller guava tree which that too had a flowering pattern in pairs.
I went to bed yesterday after talking to a friend from a mission hospital, which is located in a small town and currently struggling to carry on due to several constraints. The hospital is struggling to provide facilities or services with a specialist trying to be a Paediatrician, Obstetrician and Surgeon. That cannot go on for too long to maintain the quality of service. Fortunately, this hospital gets visiting consultants from bigger mission hospitals for short periods of ten days to two weeks fairly regularly, because of which the hospital is just viable.
There are many such stand alone hospitals, under pressure to innovate and adapt. This becomes intense during times such as this, where a pandemic is causing unsettlement in hospital services. The economic recession is paralysing the paying capacity of people who live in the margins of society.
I remember reports and news from some bigger mission hospitals in some parts of India. who have been proactive in handholding some smaller mission hospitals by donating equipment, loaning doctors, nurses, technologists, administrators, etc. for short or longer periods, helping financially when there is a shortage, offering subsidised laboratory services, etc. This brought mutual benefits. The professionals who come for short visits from bigger hospitals go back inspired by the self-giving attitudes of the staff whom they met in a smaller hospital. The smaller mission hospital receives a periodic stimulus to stay encouraged and continue in their calling!
As this is a familiar and a workable model, I wonder whether it is a good time to form functional clusters of two or three mission hospitals who offer to stay complementary to each other. Even when the two or three mission hospitals are under the governance of different mission leaderships, a functional association is practical and offers a fraternal relationship. The geographical distance need not be a constraint. I know of a hospital in South India who spares consultants to visit mission hospitals in North India and North East India. I have come across retired consultants from teaching hospitals travelling long distance regularly to help small mission hospitals.
I come back to the photos above of the guava fruits in the tree. Except a few guavas all were in clusters of two, three or four! It seems to me that solitary flowering or fruit bearing is less common. Being in clusters is more common. I know form the history of some mission hospitals that clustering connects the hospitals in diverse ways for the common good.
Will the bigger mission hospitals take a lead to form a cluster with one or two other smaller mission hospitals at a difficult time such as this! It is in giving we also receive!
Our giving might be little from our perspective, but it is given in love to affirm and upbuild! So, it has the prospect of becoming a timely help and blessing! I overhear some conversation between hospitals in this regard. Let them come to fruition.
You might be in your place for a ‘time such as this’! Anna and I carry you in our thoughts !
M.C.Mathew, 18. 5.2020
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