Project to develop family medicine in rural India

The need to develop Family Medicine in the Mayurbhanj region of India is urgent and extreme. Among the poorest areas of India, the Mayurbhanj, has an under-5 mortality twice that of the rest of India. Family physicians in the region are severely restricted by the absence of a basic infrastructure for family medicine. Supported by a WONCA Foundation Award, this project attempts to address the overwhelming healthcare problems of the region and develop a family practice network appropriate to the needs of the communities. Working with local Indian doctors, specific, achievable goals were set, which included developing a maternity protocol and a childhood immunisation program. Community clinics were set up in the villages of the project area to enable the scattered remote peoples to access medical care. The initiatives of this project are now being continued by local Indian family physicians without further outside support.