Medical caravan for poor people from Budila
A two-day mobile hospital was set up by OvidiuRo and Bucharest Medical Students' Society in Budila, a poor community where people rarely make it to the doctor unless their condition is already life threatening. Thirteen specialists, accompanied by 24 medical students from the Carol Davila University of Bucharest, offered free consultations to the villagers in paediatrics, cardiology, internal medicine, dermatology, infectious diseases, urology and ophthalmology.
From the 119 children and 79 adults who were examined, around 30% received recommendations regarding further specialized medical investigations. As expected in extremely poor communities, many of children’s diseases are caused by malnutrition (consisting mostly in carbohydrates) and lack of hygiene.
This experience really helped me to decide what specialty I want to pursue – Pediatrics. The little ones were having numerous health issues and many of them were improperly nourished. Unfortunately, children there use to eat more sweets than healthy food while their parents are wondering why they have poor appetite, said a 5th year student who took part in the caravan.
The local team from Budila set-up the school/city hall with beds for consultations, provided accommodation for the doctors and hired somebody for the weekend to prepare the meals. They also spread the word in the village regarding the free medical examination and supervised the activities. Now the social worker is monitoring children in need for treatment. Moreover, Budila is an overall model of successful collaboration. Since FCG program has started in 2012, the kindergarten attendance rate among poor children has raised from 50 % to 81 %, and the City Hall has created 2 more classrooms to accommodate all the children enrolled.
The medical caravan in Budila was the third one made possible through T4BH program, with the financial support of GlaxoSmithKline and the in-kind support of Carrefour, La Fântâna, Eurolines, Beurer and Budila City Hall. The caravan is an effective and helpful activity for both poor people from remote villages, who receive proper medical attention, and for the students, who gain experience.