The efforts bore results and on an average a hundred patients per specialty were examined. And most of the patients attended to were for pediatrics, chest and allergic diseases. Free laboratory and pulmonary function tests were conducted. Many asthmatics and allergic disorder patients were diagnosed and the allergens were also identified.

However they soon realized that, further follow up, that is adherence to therapy was very poor. This was because many of the patients considered these camps to be a mela and an opportunity to collect free drugs. Subsequently, it was decided to ask the diagnosed patients to collect the devices such as inhalers and nasal sprays and costly medicine from the main center.

This action had a tremendous impact on the attitude of the patients. The therapy was taken more seriously when they had to leave their locality and collect from a different place and there was considerable improvement. However after conducting several camps , the doctors realized that the main health problem among the under privileged section who live in extremely unhygienic , congested and polluted areas was respiratory disorders and therefore SOWED started concentrating mainly on respiratory services over the years SOWED has reached out to more than a lakh people in deprived areas and not only distributed costly medicines but also imparted knowledge about these diseases.

The problem of follow up still continued for some of the elderly and chronically ill patients as SOWED could not provide full time personnel in these areas. Their attempts to train the local doctors was not successful ; they seemed resistant to newer ideas and modalities of treatment as they considered these services did not improve their practice in their localities. SOWED is formulating a plan to train paramedical personnel to follow up chronic disorder patients .Once this is achieved, SOWED is certain that the affected populace in these deprived areas will get free “corporate type specialty care” free of cost.

Although SOWED is trying to educate the people in prevention of the respiratory diseases by keeping their environment clean, it feels that the localities of the under -privileged need more attention from the government for garbage clearance and sanitation.

Thursday weekly allergy and chest clinic at Syed Nagar, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad.