Home Visits: Day 4 (Jegapathy Clinic)

          Today, during our 4th clinical day, I traveled a short distance to Jegapathy with Dr. Eland, Bri, and Emma. We were traveling with Dr. Annama as well as Revathy and Thanky, the Pallium nurses. There, they held a clinic which is held every Tuesday. It is a free clinic and the medications that the doctor prescribes are dispensed for free, and the patients are served a free lunch as well. Aside from the doctor and nurses, the rest of the work is done entirely by volunteers, which is incredible considering that the clinic sees anywhere from 35 to 55 patients in a day.
          We saw patients with conditions including cancer, diabetes, hypertension, lupus, hypothyroidism, to name a few. I spent most of my time interacting with the staff to get an idea of how the clinic was run and getting the overall vibe of the community that the clinic serves. The dispensing of medications was done by the nurses, who transport the meds in large suitcases that are full of tupperware containers of different varieties of medications. They must also keep a detailed and accurate record of the medications they prescribe, because if they are audited and found to have inaccurate records, they would face extremely (and excessively) strict penalties from the Indian government. The patients have paper sacks (much like lunch sacks) that they label and keep their medications in, and bring them back to the clinic each time they visit to get them refilled.
          Most of the patients only need to be seen once per month, but they tend to come almost every week because they enjoy the company and the sense of community that exists there. Many of them live alone and may or may not have jobs, so they are in some ways like a family. We were welcomed into this family with open arms and smiling faces, and we joined them in eating a traditional Kerala lunch, which was one of the best I've had in my time here. For dessert, we had payasam, which I was hesitant to try at first, but was very pleasantly surprised by the sweet cinnamony taste of the brownish liquid. I am definitely going to have to google a recipe and try to make it when I come home! It was a great, mostly light-hearted day, for which I am thankful. We got back to the hotel around 2pm which was an early day, so I think I'll get started on my final project for the course. More on that later! For now, thanks for reading!

Here, you can see the "pharmacy" they set up at these clinics. The patients bring out their charts and prescriptions, and the nurses fill their paper sacks with their meds, and they go on their way.

Dr. Eland and Emma socializing with some of the patients waiting outside the clinic.