Wellington Rotates in Rural Indian Hospital
A Short Stint in India By Laura Wellington, MD  I have always been interested in international medicine and health care and spent a significant amount of time abroad. None of my previous experiences, however, has been as acutely stimulating as the time I spent in India this winter.
For four weeks, I lived and worked in a small (60-bed), rural hospital in Sargur, Karnataka, located in southern India. The hospital serves a population of approximately 300,000, comprised of both tribal and non-tribal peoples. The Needs Sargur is an intensely resource-poor area. Malnutrition, HIV, TB, lack of prenatal care, communicable diseases and infections, and trauma due to car and motorcycle accidents are among the major health concerns. Costs of tests and care are factored into many decisions physicians make; because India does not have a national health insurance system, patients pay upfront for medical services. Forty percent of those served come from local tribal communities that would not otherwise have access to medical care. Many are reached by a mobile clinic sent from the hospital six days per week. Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement  The hospital—Vivekananda Memorial Hospital—is funded and run by a non-governmental organization called Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement (SVYM), established in 1984 by a group of medical students.
SVYM runs institutes in leadership development, public policy, and Indian studies as well as two hospitals and two schools. The organization has hosted students from all over the world, including the universities of Iowa, Cornell, and Harvard, and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. North Memorial associate program director Shailey Prasad, MD, MPH, has been involved with SVYM since its inception, having served as chief medical officer of the tribal project and currently advising the organization on multiple activities. He plans to continue developing connections to SVYM’s projects in the future. The Elective My rotation included obstetrics and gynecology and inpatient and outpatient medicine, along with mobile clinic work and other hospital outreach. The mobile clinic was a particularly rich experience, as it provides basic medical coverage at no charge to regional tribal communities.  The hospital itself has x-ray and ultrasound capabilities and is equipped with a pathology lab and an operating room for use by visiting surgeons and obstetricians.
I also had the opportunity to work with local physicians from a variety of backgrounds and specialties, including Ayurvedic medicine, which is a traditional form of Indian medicine believed to have originated 5,000 years ago. Lasting Impressions My time in India was incredibly rich. I learned so many things: how it feels to practice medicine in a resource-poor setting and the public health concerns of a rural, highly underserved population. I have the utmost respect and admiration for the physicians and hospital workers who help to run the Vivekananda Memorial Hospital. I hope to maintain a lasting relationship with SVYM and continue to support it however I am able. Laura Wellington, MD, is a second-year resident at North Memorial Family Medicine Residency.
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