Sometime in Feb-Mar 2011, Youth for Seva and Anatha Shishu Nivasa(an NGO & orphanage) made a joint decision to start a free clinic for the needy. ASN wanted to put to good use some space they had in their premises, and was willing to take care of all infrastructure and medicine costs. Youth for Seva came into the picture to help find doctors who will run the clinic. Doctors! Did someone say Doctors for Seva?
Yes, Doctors for Seva is a network of doctors who are willing to do some amount of voluntary work for the needy. We started off with just Dr.Vimochana, a Pediatrician, and had the support of Dr. Latha Venkataraman(Gynecologist) and Dr.Shubha Badami (a Pediatrician) in the initial days. The idea was to provide an easy platform for doctors to serve the most needy, voluntarily. We have some amazing doctors in the network - Dr. Dhiraj, a Pediatric Surgeon and Dr. Srimani, a Gynecologist, who so kindly and with minimal questions waive off their surgeon's fee for needy patients. We have Dr. Vimochana and Dr. Jayalakshmi who go out of their way in helping any child in need, by adopting govt schools, screening and providing medicines for free. And some really Seva minded hospitals like Mahaveer Jain who've done around 200 free surgeries through us, Sri Krishna Sevasharama, Narayana Nethralaya and others who've been very actively and genuinely involved in helping those in need.
But here, we needed doctors who'll come to "our" clinic and consult for free. A different story altogether! Its not at all reasonable to ask doctors to leave their clinics and instead consult in ours. I made calls after calls to as many doctors as I knew, and it was just not happening. Besides, I was not mentally prepared to start a clinic, and it didn't feature in the plans I had for the Health team. This one time, I really thought I won't be able to do it. I remember asking Dr. Vimochana and Vyjayanti about this. I told them "My heart's not in it. I don't think I can do it this time; there's too little time before we inaugurate the clinic, and we have no doctors!" They told me to keep trying.
On the day of the inauguration, Dr. Rachitha Rama Murthy, a DFS member, had just dropped in and was impressed with the clinic. I didn't loose any time asking her if she'd like to consult for a few days until we find another doctor. She agreed. We heaved a sigh of relief.
We inaugurated. We still had no confirmed doctor. We had to start the very next day. Patients began queuing up from the nearby slums - 18 of them on our first day! Dr. Rachitha came. All of us broke into big smiles - smiles of relief, smiles of victory, smiles of gratitude, smiles of hope.......smiles.
I still remember in the midst of all the chaos typical of a first day, I looked at Anand and said "can you believe it, we're running a clinic?" He said, "I know!" We now have Dr.Subbalakshmi who consults every evening, Dr. Mamatha who consults every morning, Dr. Aradhana, Dr. Geeta, Dr. Gayatri, Dr. Shashikala who come once a week. We see about 10 patients per day. We've got 4 cardiac surgeries done, an ENT surgery and a gynecology surgery through our network hospitals. And its been 6 months since we started.
I passed by the clinic the other day, and saw the board outside. It had "Doctors for Seva" written on it. My mind went on how we struggled to start, how every day was an effort in convincing people, finding doctors, treating patients. And now, our clinic. We didn't ask for it, but here it was, giving new hope and new dreams.
Doctors for Seva is no more something in my head, its not some fiction. Its a reality. And its on that board.
Yes, Doctors for Seva is a network of doctors who are willing to do some amount of voluntary work for the needy. We started off with just Dr.Vimochana, a Pediatrician, and had the support of Dr. Latha Venkataraman(Gynecologist) and Dr.Shubha Badami (a Pediatrician) in the initial days. The idea was to provide an easy platform for doctors to serve the most needy, voluntarily. We have some amazing doctors in the network - Dr. Dhiraj, a Pediatric Surgeon and Dr. Srimani, a Gynecologist, who so kindly and with minimal questions waive off their surgeon's fee for needy patients. We have Dr. Vimochana and Dr. Jayalakshmi who go out of their way in helping any child in need, by adopting govt schools, screening and providing medicines for free. And some really Seva minded hospitals like Mahaveer Jain who've done around 200 free surgeries through us, Sri Krishna Sevasharama, Narayana Nethralaya and others who've been very actively and genuinely involved in helping those in need.
But here, we needed doctors who'll come to "our" clinic and consult for free. A different story altogether! Its not at all reasonable to ask doctors to leave their clinics and instead consult in ours. I made calls after calls to as many doctors as I knew, and it was just not happening. Besides, I was not mentally prepared to start a clinic, and it didn't feature in the plans I had for the Health team. This one time, I really thought I won't be able to do it. I remember asking Dr. Vimochana and Vyjayanti about this. I told them "My heart's not in it. I don't think I can do it this time; there's too little time before we inaugurate the clinic, and we have no doctors!" They told me to keep trying.
On the day of the inauguration, Dr. Rachitha Rama Murthy, a DFS member, had just dropped in and was impressed with the clinic. I didn't loose any time asking her if she'd like to consult for a few days until we find another doctor. She agreed. We heaved a sigh of relief.
We inaugurated. We still had no confirmed doctor. We had to start the very next day. Patients began queuing up from the nearby slums - 18 of them on our first day! Dr. Rachitha came. All of us broke into big smiles - smiles of relief, smiles of victory, smiles of gratitude, smiles of hope.......smiles.
I still remember in the midst of all the chaos typical of a first day, I looked at Anand and said "can you believe it, we're running a clinic?" He said, "I know!" We now have Dr.Subbalakshmi who consults every evening, Dr. Mamatha who consults every morning, Dr. Aradhana, Dr. Geeta, Dr. Gayatri, Dr. Shashikala who come once a week. We see about 10 patients per day. We've got 4 cardiac surgeries done, an ENT surgery and a gynecology surgery through our network hospitals. And its been 6 months since we started.
I passed by the clinic the other day, and saw the board outside. It had "Doctors for Seva" written on it. My mind went on how we struggled to start, how every day was an effort in convincing people, finding doctors, treating patients. And now, our clinic. We didn't ask for it, but here it was, giving new hope and new dreams.
Doctors for Seva is no more something in my head, its not some fiction. Its a reality. And its on that board.
I remember the first day at the clinic, my first day at YFS too:)
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