Now that I am actually into my program and past orientation I can tell you, because now I know! I have been going to two different clinics here in Kathmandu. One is a government run clinic in our of the outlying neighborhoods called Gothatar. The other is a nicer community run clinic that is in a nicer part of the city called New Baneshwor.
I have been going to the Gothatar in the mornings for about 3-4 hours and to the Baneshwor clinic for 1.5 hours. The government clinic is in pretty bad shape. No place to wash hands, no bandages, no otoscope, one stethescope, one BP cuff, no light to look in people's mouths. But they do have antibiotics that they give out like a ton, and plenty of vaccinations. There are three community health workers, three community health worker students, and me! Two of the health workers have been around for quite awhile and are pretty knowledgeable about most of the common diseases, but their diagnostic skills are quite lacking. But then again it seems we seem the same types of people for the same problems, so most treatments are probably right enough.
There are some major problems with the clinic though. For example, I itch to wash my hands, and have to grab the picture of water and the soap and go out front to wash my hands. And only one person has washed her hands since I started there.
We decided with prompting from me, that we would each come up with a list of things we can do to improve the clinic. Then we are going to get together to talk about what we can do. For example, they really need some type of machine at the clinic to sterilize equipment etc. They use metal tongue depressors for example instead of wood, which makes sense because it can be reused. The problem is getting it clean again! I can spot quite a few things that I would change right away, but I think the ideas really need to come from themselves or else it really won't go any where! I am pretty excited about this project though. They all speak a little bit of English and with my meager Nepal we get on pretty well. My language teacher/translator has also been coming and he helps out quite a bit too.
I'll speak more about the gothatar clinic later....
The other clinic is a community run clinic and I have been shadowing an almost doctor-level worker. I am not sure what his title is, but people come to him instead of the local doctor because they like him better. This clinic is much better stocked, but also a little crazy. There are two rooms with a gate door separating the patients from him. The patients file in at a rate of one every 5 minutes or so. Two patients come into the room at a time and he sees one and then the other. Not a lot of privacy in Nepal, but this clinic is better than Gothatar....the entire neighborhood knows what disease you have, because everyone is the same room as you!!
The Baneshwor clinic is really not the best for me though as I just sit there and try to figure out what is going on and why. The almost-physician speaks English, but has next to no time to say anything to me. We will see how long I stay here. It has been good though to see how a better organized clinic works here in Nepal.
And I have now had the please of turning down a stinkin' drug rep gift in Nepal. Dang! I thought I could at least get away from that in Nepal. But nope, in walked two guys well dressed with briefcases. They had a little notebook with pictures of their drugs with lame English slogans on them. It was actaully quite comical. The ads for the drugs put the American ones to same. I'll see if I can get a copy or picture next time they are around. Anyway, after their spill they offered pens to us. McDonalds and 7-Eleven haven't made it to Kathmandu yet, but drug reps have...
My plan is work with these clinics for about six weeks, after which I will most likely going to a more remote village and conducting a health camp for a few days. After this I will be going trekking for a while to the Everest Base Camp. Then returning to Kathmandu to finish up here for a week or so, and then back to the States.
Next on the Blog with be a description of the group I volunteering with VSN.....
Here are some cool pics....I'll have some of the clinics next post!
This sure beats whipped cream and Oreos.
This is the monkey temple...called that because there are monkeys all over it.
View from the top of the temple...
The top of the monkey Stupa.
I love this picture...
Another view of Kathmandu.
This is Sugandha and some of the family in the next shot. We had BBQ chicken for pre-dinner.
Ok the next two shots are proof that kids are cool and cute...especially Nepali kids...
Some cool temple thing...they are beautiful and there are about a million of them in Kathmandu!
Sacred Cows, sacred pigeons, and little kids....all just having a great time together. I call this a disease vector. But even better was that right after I took this shot I dropped my jacket on the ground. hmmm...not the best place to drop one's favorite jacket!!!
This is the god of death or something...at least that is what my cheap tour guide told me. Apparently it is impossible to lie in front of him. So, they used to get people "confess" in front of him.
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