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End of Week 1- Friday and Saturday
'Tis me again!
So I realized that my blogs so far have been mostly complaining, which is bad on my part because I don't want to give the wrong impression, I really do like India! I swear!
The people are great, the food is manageable, and I've seen some amazing stuff. It's more culture shock than anything else. One of the biggest issues I'm trying to deal with is the lack of cleanliness and sterility at the doctor's offices and hospitals. It's frightening, especially in rural areas. They don't wash their hands before and after touching patients, they use the same sheet for multiple infected patients, and they wash their sterile linens in dirty water. Another issue I'm trying to work out is the "foot" thing. It has to be a cultural thing because it really makes no sense to me other wise. Indians take their shoes off when entering a house, which, yeah I'm ok with. I'm used to that in the Hawaiian culture. But take your shoes off in the OR? Do surgery barefoot? Handle a TB patient with no shoes? I'm sorry, but the floors aren't that clean and don't warrant ANYONE going barefoot. It's been hard for me to deal with because I've seen what these people walk in all day, and then to come into a sterile environment… it's just too much for me right now.
I feel like I'm making a statement about India that may be incorrect. These people are good people (subtract a few men) and their policy and medical system has a flow to it that's been working for years, so who am I to question it? It's just so different and hard to comprehend that these patients don't really know any sort of medical practice out side that which is offered in India, which I guess could be said about US patients too. Not that it may be better, but come on, does anyone think it's normal to be cradle-carried to your bed after surgery instead of transported via stretcher? Think about it, you just had a hysterectomy, do you want to walk yourself back to bed?
One amazing thing about the medicine here is how available it is and how AFORDABLE it is, at least to US standards. I went to a clinic the other day where he took 19 patients in just under two hours. I was speaking with Dr. Gore about how much doctor's visits cost. He said that, just to see him was 60 rupees (mind you that's about $1.50) and if he prescribed something the visit would be 70 rupees ($1.80). Obviously pharmacy costs don't apply to the visit, but he said even medications were cheap. He was so good at diagnosing that, he said, that most patients don't need to come back. This is beneficial because there's no time or money wasted on waiting for test results. If the ailment persists, he says, then further tests and studies will be conducted. But you don't have to wait weeks or months for test results it happens so fast. The reason he doesn't run and wait for tests is because most of the patients can't afford it, which makes sense. If you're fantastic at diagnosing why wouldn't you bypass tests for a client who is so easily treatable in the first place.
The first time Rachel and I went to the rural hospital we were so amazed that everything was free. Apparently the Indian government highly favors medical advancement and promotes health care and education. They fully subsidize hospitals and primary health centers throughout the country giving free medical attention to anyone that needs it. This includes all doctor's visits, tests, lab work, radiological scans, vaccinations, injections, and medications! It is so amazing! We kept asking how much everything was and all they did was laugh at us! They kept saying "it's free, it's free". I think we left the hospital pretty much in shock. I mean, how could a country as underdeveloped (or so we think- compared to the US) manage to provide free health care to millions of people and the US can hardly manage to serve it's population? I can tell you one thing, India lacks health insurance majorly, which might be one reason as to why things are the way they are. Less bureaucracy. More attention to what matters. Honestly, the answer to any financial question at a government hospital is always "free", it's pretty shocking when you think about it.
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