Medical experience
Ratings
Review
In regards to pre-departure support, I feel that there was lots of support given in term of the webinars and the handbook, I feel the handbook listed the information I required prior to this trip.
In terms of in country support, this was very good, there was always a coordinator around to help if you needed it, even late at night. There is security always on duty which made me feel safe. A member of my group needed medical attention and I can honestly say the support she was given from both the Sri Lankan staff (Manoj) and English staff (Steph) was amazing! They coordinated for her to see a specialist within 20 minutes and were at the hospital by her side for her whole experience.
I stayed at River House, it was nice as it was all outside, rooms were basic with bunk beds, the biggest positive was that it had air conditioning. A negative is that there was only one bathroom in the building shared between a lot of people, but once you find the toilets and showers by the pool it made life lots easier.
I was on the medical programme, overall it was a pleasant experience, visiting both the local government hospital and the local Ayurveda hospital. It was good to see the difference in health care between the UK and Sri Lanka. I would have liked to have been more involved and hands on, but I knew this before the programme started. When being on the wards in the hospital it was difficult as not many of the nurses spoke English, but I still managed to get involved in terms of reading notes and spending times with patients. Manoj (local coordinator) really does his best to ensure you have a pleasant time, however, there is a barrier between what the doctors have agreed for the volunteers to do/observe and what the nurses allow you to do.
Overall, a pleasant experience.
On the medical programme, it would be nice if the wards were aware that volunteers were coming on particulars days, as on several days the nurses and doctors continually spoke to each other in their own language, looking at the volunteers and laughing, making it very obvious that they were speaking about you. As you can imagine this is very off putting and intimidating. I feel that Manoj does his absolute best to deal with the situations that arise in the hospital but things such as the nurses he cannot deal with.
Another thing would be allowing alcohol at River House would be pleasant, and also maybe have a little shop selling soft drinks/snacks would have been helpful to save a tuk tuk ride to town most days.