Charitable workshops

A charitable workshop consisting of treating urological patients as outpatients and performing operations has been set up by Mr.Godbole at the Thane Civil Hospital, Thane, and Maharashtra, India via UROLINK which is a branch of BAUS (British Association of Urological Surgeons).

A brief overview of the administrative details of the health system in Maharashtra State is as follows.

India is divided into several states. Each state is made of districts (Jilha) and each district made of several Talukas. A number of villages are included in a Taluka. Thane district lies on the western coast of Maharastra and borders Mumbai. Thane city is the capital of Thane district and the District General Hospital is called Vitthal Sayanna District General Hospital or Thane Civil Hospital. (After Shri Vitthal Sayanna who almost 50 years ago donated a large amount towards building this hospital.

The Hospital has a CEO traditionally called as the Civil Surgeon. The Current Civil Surgeon is Dr.P.Chapalgaonkar, Consultant Physician with an interest
in Cardiology. The Civil Surgeon is directly accountable to the Health Minister of the State of Maharashtra. He has in his jurisdiction the responsibility of the health of 2 million people. The DGH drains the local population as well as 20 primary care hospitals all over Thane District. The population is varied from an urban setting right up to rural and tribal people from all over the district.

Needless to say the pathology (including trauma) encountered is tremendous and fascinating. The process of setting up an UROLINK was greeted with enthusiasm by the Civil Surgeon (Dr.P.Chapalgaonkar) in October 2006 when Mr.Godbole approached him with this proposal.

Mr.Godbole worked in close association with the four local General Surgeons and they had kept 10 Urological patients admitted with a view to operating on them. Initially the decision was to perform minor to intermediate procedures such has cystoscopies, urethrotomies and TURPs. 6 cystoscopies, 3 cystolitholapaxies, 6 TURPs and one urethrotomy were performed in the first workshop. All patients did very well. They did not require blood transfusions; they had clear urine postoperatively, had successful trial removal of catheters within 48 hours and were discharged home.

Since then the workshop is held every three months where Mr.Godbole leads the same and till date over 100 operations have been performed free of charge. Now it is possible to give the rural, tribal and unaffording population of Thane District state of the art Urological care completely free of charge. This workshop has also attracted Surgeons from the interiors of Maharashtra who are participating in the same and also gaining skills under supervision. It is Mr.Godbole’s aim that in the future a mobile Urological Service can be set up for the whole of the state of Maharashtra so that Urological care is given to all who need it without having to travel far from home.

It is anticipated that skills are passed on to local Surgeons so that work can be carried on all round the year as well.