It was the day of verdict. The verdict of the tremendous efforts and planning that we had put in since the past one month, right from choosing an area of need. Enthusiastic medical professionals from over Maharashtra willingly gave up this Sunday of rest to give back to the society, and showed up in the village of Vangani, early in the morning at 9.
We had manpower and will, but lacked in materials and money- where a local politician and member of Shiv Sena graciously chipped in!
A mandap was set up with chairs for the waiting patients and a small shop was used for the medicos to sit. The medicos formed a systematic arrangement from registration to general examination, blood pressure, blood sugar, etc. to further referral to an orthopaedic surgeon, physiotherapist, dentist or physician to the final pharmacy.
The medicines were absolutely free of cost, thanks to our sponsors and micronutrient powder was given to all the children who showed up.
But after one year of an experience with similar camps, we had realized that something was missing. Sure, we diagnosed a patient or two and referred them further but were we really making a difference in their lives? Are pills for a day or two going to suffice? This pressed us to think of the bigger picture, and for the first time, we introduced the concept of health education and counselling in our system.
Diagnosing a person will treat him for a day, educating him in healthy living treats him for life.
We had 5 volunteers who had each prepared a topic to be explained to a patient and they stood, looking at a way to start. They decided to sit beyond the pharmacy and catch patients as they were done with medicine collection, but we faced a major problem- the patients after receiving free medicines didn't want to listen.We realized we had to give up our seminar like idea and just convince as many as we can. So we sat and spoke, about anything that the patients wanted to ask or any doubts they had and cleared them. Slowly, the patients started noticing that we had something to tell them and we managed to get a crowd of 20 interested women at a time who even answered questions at the end. Anaemia, ORS use, family planning, menstruation, de-addiction, sanitation were the topics covered.
We can confidently say that at least 50% of the patients learnt something new and we can only hope that they will inculcate it in their lives. This gave us an immense sense of satisfaction on our pilot approach and we have so much more room for improvement on this one.
We reached a count of 200 patients, we won't say we treated them. Treatment is a continuous process. But we gave them the basic healthcare and knowledge that they deserve to have and encouraged them to seek government healthcare and policies.
The camp concluded with felicitation of all involved. All had a lot to learn-about cases, patient interaction and a lot of hands on practice. Moreover, a sense of giving back to the society.
Passers-by would say he saw around 20 tired faces in white at the Vangani railway station that night, but those 20 faces were surely more content and more knowledgeable than they were at the beginning of that Sunday.
