Thanks Duncan

Christmas greetings to you all.

There is a medical student from London here at the moment. His name is Duncan, and he has his own blogger website called Bombay Nights. His first degree was English Honours, and so I have borrowed a piece he wrote on his website about Lok Hospital (with his permission). I think it hits the nail right on the head, and is so much more eloquently put than I would have managed!!:-

"Lok hospital does treat the poorest Harijan (untouchable) caste, or Dalits (oppressed) as they are also known, and it does treat those who cannot afford treatment, as well as link with the aids and village healthcare work. But there is more to it than that.

Firstly, the primary vision that Dr Alfred has is underpinned by an understanding that it is God who ultimately blesses us with healing through the physician, not simply the physicians skill, and this is his witness to the patients – that they will only get better by God’s grace.

Secondly, in India, most of the healthcare access is through GPs, who refer a patient for secondary health care, like in England. However, supposing a treatment the patient 1000 rupees at the hospital – the hospital will take around 600 of that and the GP will take around 400 rupees. This leads to a lot of endemic corruption, with GP’s requesting unnecessary procedures and investigations at the patient’s expense to line their own purses. This has the inevitable consequence of making healthcare unaffordable for the poorest Indians. But more significantly it leads to a 2 tier system of care since it is not in GP’s interests to help the poorest gain access to the overstretched and limited state-run medical care since they do not receive the same remunerations.

Lok hospital does 2 things to counteract this. It will not take referrals from GPs but sees people directly. It provides the best level of healthcare services to paying residents of Thane without deceiving them or recommending unnecessary care. Thus it has a growing reputation spreading by word of mouth, for excellence and integrity in the local community. It uses this revenue from wealthier patients, who come because of its reputation for honesty, to reduce its own overall running costs so that it can maintain a free healthcare service for those who cannot afford it. This model has another major cultural significance: if it were only to treat Harijans, apart from making it difficult to maintain financially, it would also mean that it was looked down on as a second-rate hospital by locals of higher caste helping to perpetuate a 2 tier system. What Lok is doing is giving the same quality of care to the higher caste individuals as to the Harijans, but significantly they see the same physicians, wait in the same rooms and are not segregated off into separate wards. Thus it is culturally more effective at promoting equality of treatment.

Thirdly, and most importantly with respect to the gospel, Lok DOES take referrals from other Christian NGOs (including their own Aids project) working amongst the poorest and most needy in the community. This opens vital doors for these workers – they are able to go into a household, and as well as sharing the gospel and ministering in their own capacities, they are able to see potentially sick people and offer referral to Lok for free assessment and treatment. This makes many people more willing to open their homes to Christians, and thus many more hear about Jesus than otherwise might. Additionally, not all the staff are Christian, so there is the witness to them – there is a meeting every Sunday night in the basement of the hospital for patients, where the Gospel is preached directly and clearly. Dr Alfred invites all the patients who are able to come, and many do, perhaps hearing the gospel for the first time. On his ward rounds, I frequently hear him entreat patients to give God thanks for their recovery or encourage family to ask the Lord for blessing on their loved ones or give thanks for blessing already received.

So I hope that gives you a better picture of what is going on here – it might, at face value, seem less worthy than simply using the hospital for the poorest Harijans, but it is a much more thought-through, culturally and spiritually aware strategy. In fact, plans to expand the hospital to over double it’s current size are well underway, with a new site and building plans already in place – work commences in February. The total funds needed for this work are £2 million GBP with payments being made on an instalment basis during the building work. Half of this is planned to be met from the hosptial’s own funds, but half will need to be raised from benefactors and charitable giving."

If you are interested in giving to this, please email tony.sergeant@icc.ac.uk. He is principal of ICC in Glasgow, but is also a member of the Thane trust board, the British arm of the charitable organisation which supports Lok hospital. He will be able to provide you with details of how to give.

On a personal note, we are all very well, and especially excited about my parents and brother and sister coming to Thane for Christmas and New-Year. On the baby front, Our bump now has it's head pointing in the right direction which is a real blessing. We did not want to contemplate a C-section here in India!! I think that we are getting a little excited now, as the last two friends of ours who had babies delivered 8 and 4 weeks early respectively. We now only have 5 weeks to go (OR LESS!!)

God bless, Adam, Jo, Alistair and bump