What We Do

Programmes

Global Clinic’s programmes are geared towards long-term, sustainable models that improve a community’s well-being.
Each of our programmes is tailored to the needs of the particular community and aims to make a transformational impact on the lives we touch.
Our programmes include:

Medical Missions

Our medical missions aim to bring immediate healthcare relief to areas that do not have any access to these services. We activate doctors and medical volunteers with different specialties to treat patients in these areas, and send complicated health cases to hospitals for treatment.
These missions are an important on-going component of our programmes in reaching out to communities and laying the foundations of a self-sustaining health programme. Our medical missions often involve long-term collaborations with local partners and medical authorities to ensure the continuity of the programmes that have been put in place.
Each trip to a community usually lasts between 1 and 2 weeks, and is attended by approximately 10 to 20 volunteers. The scope of work on each medical mission differs and comprises one or more of the following:

Mobile care units

This component involves mobile Global Clinic teams, which move into rural villages, nomadic areas or refugee camps. As it is difficult to set up base in such areas, the doctors and nurses often screen and treat patients with the help of local liaisons. Patient education is done with the help of local volunteers or school nurses. Emergent conditions requiring early medical or surgical intervention are identified and the patients are provided subsidised transport and accommodation to a local tertiary centre for timely intervention.

Medical clinics

Temporary medical clinics may be set up in existing medical facilities, or in schools, local community centres or other common areas, which are accessible to residents. Here, the Global Clinic teams have a temporary base equipped to diagnose, treat and refer patients with medical problems to local tertiary medical centres. Simple surgical procedures may be performed with mobile sterilisation facilities in basic operation room settings that at all times meet the Global Clinic standards of hygiene and care.

Surgical expeditions

These are planned carefully with the support and endorsement of local hospitals and medical or government councils. Major surgical expeditions require doctors, nurses and support personnel. Surgical equipment and consumables are planned in advance based on the estimated need of the target population. Although meticulous research and planning together with substantial funding would be required before undertaking such a surgical expedition, we have found the resulting impact and benefits to the lives of our surgical patients to be tremendous.

GC Initiative for Education

The GC Initiative for Education is an important step towards our vision of a sustainable future for better health care standards. We believe firmly in setting up a self-sustaining system of care and the ultimate goal of all our education and training initiatives is to develop local potential to move towards long term programmes that are run locally. The GC Initiative for Education can be broadly divided into three major aspects:

Community health education

Public healthcare education remains one of our most sustainable initiatives. To this end, all of Global Clinic’s medical missions include a community health education component for patients. We collaborate with local partners like schools or hospitals to deliver these educational programmes. Aspects of primary healthcare are touched upon at our temporary medical clinics such as hygiene, nutrition, the importance of health screening and responsible use of medications. These are done through one-on-one counselling, general public lectures and dedicated question-and-answer sessions.

Outreach health education

Our educational efforts go beyond community centres. We send out mobile health units to remote villages with little or no access to these centres to dispense important health messages and to reinforce our education initiative by furthering our reach into the community. These outreach programmes serve to foster rapport and build trust so that local volunteers can continue the work Global Clinic has started.

Vocational education and training

Our Global Clinic doctors train and educate motivated community professionals such as nurses, medical technicians or teachers to oversee our healthcare programmes and continue the work we have started on. Through a transfer of knowledge and skills, we work towards building the capacity of the local community. Global Clinic also funds the provision of medical equipment and facilities where necessary. Global Clinic plans to develop scholarships that can fund vocational training and a short-term allowance to ensure that these candidates continue to serve the community after the completion of their training.

Services

Cleft lip and cleft palate surgeries

We perform life-changing surgery to help children born with facial deformities.

Dentistry

We provide basic dental treatment, such as extractions and fillings, often in acute conditions. Minor oral surgeries are also performed.

General medicine

Our general medical services range from routine check-ups to hypertension and diabetes mellitus, and rare conditions such as neurofibromatosis. Our general medicine team is also equipped to treat dermatological and orthopedic conditions.

General surgery

We perform a wide range of surgeries, including the removal of tumours, and surgery to address accidents and emergencies.

Obstetrics

We aim to tackle high perinatal and infant mortality rates in poor communities, both via on-site screening and treatment and by equipping midwives and pregnant women with sterile childbirth kits.

Optometry

We carry out eye screenings and examinations and provide patients with reading glasses, as well as sunglasses to block out harmful UV rays in mountainous regions.

Ophthalmology

We work to restore and repair the gift of sight for those with impaired vision, including through cataract surgery.

Women's health

One of the main aims of our women's health missions in Ladakh is to screen women for cervical cancer and pre-malignant diseases. Your donations will help us build on our work by administering HPV vaccines to women exposed to cervical cancer risk.