Guwahati: A middle aged scribe of an Assamese daily recently participated in the weekly evening OPD (outpatient department) clinic at Guwahati Press Club of northeast India out of curiosity. The attending doctor advised Nilakantha to check his blood pressure. Initially the scribe asserted that he had no BP (meaning no irregularity in blood pressure).
But when the nurse in the camp measured his blood pressure, she found the outcome shocking. The young nurse changed his hand for a second opinion. But the outcome remained the same that Nilakantha was suffering from hypertension (180 by 110). Finally the doctor advised to take related medicines regularly.
Meet Jyotiprasad, a contributor of news & features to local newspapers in the city, who casually came to press club on a Saturday afternoon. He was asked to consult with the attending doctor and also check his blood sugar.
The result was not comfortable for Jyotiprasad, as he reported high sugar level in body fluid. The doctor, who preferred not to advise him any medicine immediately, but asked the young reporter to have a balanced diet and also go for physical exercises.
One can find many case-studies, where many lives were virtually saved with timely interventions through the unique healthcare initiative titled 'Evening with a Doctor'. Conceived and organized by the local press club, the camp now emerges as a regular healthy hangout for the member-journalists along with their dependants. It was launched ten months back with initial supports from Assam's well-known Dispur
Hospitals as Dr Jayanta Bardoloi helped in raising a doctor's chamber at the club premises.
The last evening clinic on 8 July was conducted by Dr Chandramouli B, a senior consultant on joint replacement and trauma surgery from Fortis Hospital Bangalore. Nearly 20 media persons participated the camp, where they were advised accordingly by the doctor, who had performed more than 3700 joint replacement of knee, hip, elbow & shoulders and 12000 trauma surgeries of various fractures, ligament injuries and joint reconstructions.
Till date, practicing doctors from Apollo Chennai Hospital, Medanta-the Medicity Hospital, Manipal Hospitals Bangalore, GNRC Hospitals, Down Town Hospitals, Narayana Super-Specialty Hospitals, Swagat Super-Surgical Institute, Wintrobe Hospital, Barthakur Clinic, Nemcare Hospital, Rahman Hospitals, Sun Valley Hospital, Sight First eye-clinic, Ayurvedic College, MMC Panbazar etc have attended the
camps.
