PMGY’s India Medical Programme

Experiences and Benefits

One of the main benefits of this elective was the opportunity I had to gain an insight into the healthcare system within India. I think it is easy to take for granted the accessibility of health care in the UK. Despite having access to government hospitals, there is a large proportion of people in India who struggle to access this due to location, transport restrictions or health restrictions. This elective provided me with the opportunity to assist volunteer teams of healthcare professionals who would run clinics in a variety of settings providing services such as health checks (including blood pressure and blood sugar checks), blood grouping as well as being able to provide advice and treatment for common medical conditions similar to what a GP would see in the UK.

This elective allowed me to improve in taking histories and developed both my verbal and non verbal communication skills. Due to the volume of people we would see it made me more independent in coming up with initial management plans, so that I could present more fluently back to the supervising clinician. I really enjoyed being able to see a wide variety of patients from young children all the way up to care home residents. I also gained a real appreciation for how much healthcare can vary for patients in a country with such a big wealth gap. This isn’t something I had been aware of before but it was a great learning experience to have the opportunity to observe healthcare at all different levels whilst in India.

One of the other benefits to completing my medical elective in India was that it allowed me to experience and learn about medical conditions which are not commonly seen in the UK. One example of this was with TB. Despite minimizing contact with these patients due to infection risk, it was interesting to have the opportunity to examine and experience interpreting investigation results from these patients.

Whilst in India we were able to travel at the weekend. I visited many places in Delhi. Weekend trips included Agra, Rishikesh and Bhimtal. Vishy the programme coordinator has many suggestions on where to visit as well as having contacts for weekend accommodation and travel.