Local doctor travels to India to provide free medical care to the indigent
Tuesday, November 03, 2009, 3:12pm
POTSDAM -- Sandhya Parikh, a physician assistant in Canton-Potsdam Hospital's Chemical Dependency Services, traveled to India recently to provide free medical care to indigent patients in Gujarat, India through the Shree Santram Janseva Mandir, a free and sliding-scale clinic operated by the Shree Santram Janseva Trust in Nadiad, Gujarat.
Ms. Parikh treated 50 patients in August and September. The patients visit the clinic from states throughout the northern region of India, where the state of Gujarat is located, sometimes traveling over fifteen miles on foot to reach treatment. Substance abuse is a major medical issue in Gujarat, and the poor have little access to treatment. The state has 2.6 million families living below the poverty line, despite a growing industry in information technology, according a Gujarat state government web site.
The reasons people suffer addiction are complicated, but are not really very different from what we might encounter in the U.S., so the treatment doesn't vary. Access to treatment is what counts, and I was pleased to help more people get the treatment they need," said the physician assistant.
For more information on Canton-Potsdam Hospital's addiction recovery services, patients should contact their primary care provider, or Carolyn White, Director of Chemical Dependency Services, at 261-5954. For more information about the free clinic in Gujarat province, contact Sandhya Parikh, at the same number.
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