Better Late

(15 Oct ’06)

            I began a career at 38. Like most of my generation, through college, ‘work’ had been topmost in my mind, but much though I wanted to, I couldn’t.

            So I began to write. I freelanced. Initially secretly. I opened envelopes, clipped several together, and made them into homemade ‘notebooks’ so that I wouldn’t have to buy paper. I wrote when no one was at home, in between cooking, tidying and other chores. Then I mailed the articles/stories by ordinary post to publications. When things began to get published, there was no way I could keep it a secret. And to his credit, my husband realized that my ‘need’ to work was a basic thing: he enrolled me in a typing class and babysat when I attended it. He paid the fees for a journalism course by correspondence and helped me with my homework, cooked sometimes when I had a deadline to meet.

            Wherever, whenever I could, through the different transfers, I took up a part time job close to my home. I worked for the UNICEF, as a librarian, a teacher, and, of course, I wrote. When we came to Goa, late in life though it was, I could begin a ‘career’ of sorts. I joined a five star hotel as a guest relations officer. Goa didn’t discriminate by age. I was taken in with no experience in that field and taught the job by eager younger colleagues. I have much to thank Goa for. (An aside: I recall two women, both doctors, discussing something about Panaji being different from Goa-city. I interrupted to tell them about Goa being a state, and Panaji its capital and their reaction?: What does she know, she’s only a receptionist!! Pah! My opinion of doctors sank then. Fortunately, I subsequently have come across highly qualified medical professionals who are humble enough to accept/ acquire facts from anyone. Their thirst for knowledge overrides all prejudices.) Had it not been for that opportunity, I might not have become a ‘career’ person. I made customer service my profession. I studied tourism trends, the needs of the hospitality sector, selection and training processes in the service industry, methods of gathering, sorting and analyzing customer feedback….stuff.

It took me to the innards of the highly technical healthcare industry. Now, five years later, the industry has accepted that Patient Satisfaction has as much to do with medical care as other unrelated topics like what food will the attendant get, whether there’s adequate parking space, whether the doctor is accessible, whether the staff at the counter is polite, and more. I’m happy to be part of the pioneers in that field, late though I entered it.

            Now, coming to Goa and medical tourism. It is a fledgling field. Some players are going to scout around to invest in the state to make use of the state’s fame, and infrastructure. There are going to be tie-ups between private hospitals and hotels. But for that, one golden rule Goa must follow is Be Professional. If the best brains, skills, doctors, nurses, technicians, therapists have to be attracted, the best managers must be employed, and no excuses like ‘he is related to so and so’ will work.

            Recently, a Goan surgeon I know attended an interview held by a private hospital in Goa. He was put off by the lack of courtesy accorded to him, the lack of seriousness….not just the junior staff, but even the very senior persons/investors behaved like they just didn’t care. The gentleman returned, perturbed. It’s going to be hard to work in a culture like that, he commented sadly.

 We Goans need to change our attitudes to work if we are to succeed in health tourism….that’s the next big thing….in fact to even sustain what we have. Better late than never.

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