SIFI’s interns have been actively involved with our initiatives. In order to sustain our partnership with Ekam Foundation, they set about on a mission to identify scope for future projects. They went on field visits to get a fair idea of the state of affairs in the hospitals. Here are excerpts from their experiences.

Visit to Chengelpet Government Hospital (12/5/2012)

This being our first visit to a Government hospital, we were taken aback by the poor cleanliness level there. After some enquiry, we figured that they were low on manpower and the few cleaners who they had were frustrated by the number of times they had to clean each area. The reason for their frustration was the lack of brooms and cleaning equipment which forced them to clean everything by hand. Secondly, we noticed the lack of beds. The mothers’ room in the maternity ward had no beds and all the mothers were sitting on the floor. Similarly, the rooms where the newborns were had a huge shortage of beds and ventilators. There were 2-3 babies under each ventilator.  Another issue was the shortage of power. The government had provided a generator, but it doesn’t last too long as the hospital was too huge to be supported by one generator.  The doctor was talking to us about how if they had atleast one solar power ventilator, it could help a baby during an emergency.

Visit to Egmore Children’s Hospital (13/5/2012)

At the Egmore Hospital, we visited the IMCU, the surgical, pediatric ward, blood bank. The IMCU was the busiest. There were many children with a lot of painful injuries. We saw a girl with a burnt head and a baby who wearing an oxygen mask on her face and the like. We then went to the surgical ward, where small children of age 5 – 10 were resting after surgeries. The head doctor there spoke to us and told us his requirements such as infusion pumps, monitors etc. We noticed in this hospital too that, there was lack of beds and cots. There was also lack of manpower as they did not have the people to clean the hospital. It was the done by the nurses themselves. They seemed to have no problem with the power supply.  Visiting the blood bank was a great experience and we saw how blood was collected, screened, tested and stored. It was a very well-maintained and well stocked-up place.