I am informed that the Sivananda Rehabilitation Home was forced to close the doors of its not-for-profit medical center, The Ramadev Rao Hospital. The reason is that it was not financially viable. This is a sad outcome, after 6 years.
A new project they have started is biweekly visits to an area slum. They provide basic medical care at reduced cost for persons 13 to 55 years old. Care for those less than 13 or greater than 55 is at no cost. Medications are provided at cost, and basic laboratory testing is free. So far, they tell me, the early returns are good, and the project is going well.
This slum project seems very much like what many of us are looking for when we want to help persons in resource-limited settings. It is not quite Shantaram, but it sounds like a potentially rewarding endeavor. Especially if basic medical care can be linked to things like education and micro-finance. More in terms of my world, helping out in slum-based medical care could provide a wealth of educational opportunities for budding clinicians and students of public health.
I need to figure out how to participate in this.
Filed under: Global Health | Tagged: public health, slums, SRH
