Trick or Treat - a survival guide to health care
48 Like a Dog in the Manger The Dog in the Manger: A Dog was lying in a manger on a haystack. When the cattle came into the manger to eat the hay, the dog barked at them and chased them away. "What a selfish animal," the cattle thought, "he can't eat hay and yet he will not let us eat it."
It was reported in the media that the health care service in India was urban oriented.
Rural areas were grossly deficient in modern medical service. One State responded with a 'village health guide' scheme to try and provide at least an elementary health care in
villages. The medical officers' association went on a strike and paralysed the health services to get the scheme revoked. Comments The British Medical Journal (1986; 293:317) has said, "The social crime of not
entering themselves and forbidding others to enter is like a dog in the manger. Doctors do not care for non-curative, less glamorous aspects of primary health care in rural areas.�
We should at least find a way of providing basic primary health scheme in villages.
Unless it becomes a political agenda with mass support from the rural electorate, it cannot dislodge 'the dog from the manger'.
There is yet another kind of 'dog in the manger' in public hospitals. I know some
senior and "respected academicians" who have behaved like the dog in the manger. They
lock up all the new equipment that they do not know how to handle, to prevent the more competent junior staff from gaining attention and getting credit for their skills. The only 135
