300 get free treatment at Indian Association Camp

Dr Pereddy Somashekhara (R), a bone specialist from Apollo Hospitals, attends to a patient at the Kampala Camp yesterday. PHOTO BY RACHAEL AJWANG

What you need to know:

The exercise that lasted four days was held in Kampala and Lira.

Kampala- The Indian Association in Uganda in partnership with Apollo Hospitals yesterday concluded a four-day medical camp at the Indian Association Medical Centre in Kampala.

Three specialists from Apollo hospitals, an orthopedic (bone specialist), a neuro/spine and kidney specialist were on hand for two days to provide consultancy services to the patients in their area of specialty.

They were able to attend to more than 70 patients in Kampala. Another camp in Lira District reportedly benefited 250 patients.

Dr Jignesh R. Sanghavi, the general manager group marketing for Kenya, Ethiopia & Uganda Business, at Apollo Hospitals, attributed the overwhelming numbers at Lira Medical Centre to the fact that specialised services are few in the area compared to Kampala were they are relatively available.

“The beauty of what we experienced in Lira is that in that part of the country there are many patients and the community is in need. Therefore, they appreciated our services,” Dr Sanghavi said.
He said their major objective was “to inform the patients of what they are suffering from such that they can seek specialised healthcare within or outside Uganda”.

Dr B. G. Ratnam, a consultant nuero surgeon at the Institute of Nuero Sciences Apollo Hospitals, observed that that majority of cases that require specialised treatment are not getting diagnosis in Uganda.

“My feeling is that about 10-20 per cent cases are being diagnosed by doing simple tests which are common in many hospitals in Uganda,” he said.
Majority of the patients that were attended to during the four days were referred to local doctors for assistance.
However, some according to Dr Somashekhara have to get assistance outside the country.