Chaparda 2019 - Data Analysis

PATIENTS

Total of 379 patients were seen.   [1]Total of 1216 treatments given.

This year we were overwhelmed with the number of patients who wanted treatment. They seem to have travelled as far as up to 500KM from places like Porbandar. Bhuj and Surat. It was apparent that it was not just the hospital publicity, but patients came to the Camp via word of mouth.  It was also very sad to turn away patients as we could not meet the demands of the numbers despite everybody working very hard.  It should be noted that due to travel disruptions we could only run the clinic for 9.5 days. Unfortunately, we were short of two experienced practitioners from the previous trip and several practitioners suffered from illness and needed to take time out.

In the female clinic we saw a somewhat different group compared to the past years. A great number of the women patients were over above 50 age group( as usual) but this year many came from villages, dressed in the same colour outfits and with full body fully tattooing.  In the male clinic we saw not only agricultural workers  but also  some skilled workers from different industries such as diamond cutting and clothing.

The timing of our camp appeared to be better than previous years as the farm workers were not so busy with harvesting. However, it was still wedding season as well as a time for religious gatherings. Once again, insistence on asking patients to return for at least 3 or more times proved a success with the number of patients we treated 3 times, or more shown in the analysis below.

TREATMENTS

We completed 1216 treatments in total.

Once again it was decided to exclude patients who had fewer than three treatments from the analysis as evidence shows that those receiving fewer than 3 treatments had lower outcomes. However, we have included 10 patients who had full recovery after 2 treatments in our analysis. This brought the number of patients treated to 285 and total treatments to 1077.

Comparisons with previous years

[1] .*[1] Although 5 (4 Male and 1 Female) patient forms are missing.

Outcomes Achieved for 3+ Treatments:

These results were very encouraging showing 83% with improvements of 50% or more!

This year, it was worth looking at whether duration of illness has an impact on outcomes. It is notable that those with a very recent issue (0-1 month) showed a highly positive outcome with 42% being 100% better. The majority of patients’ had suffered their illness for 1 – 5 years and they also had good results . Problems of longer standing (over 6 years) were fewer in number but also showed less improvement. This is what would be expected in any practice

AGE GROUPS.

As last year the majority were over 50. We saw patients from age 5 to 90 years old.

RANGE OF COMPLAINTS

Patients presented with a range of different illnesses however, musculoskeletal complaints far outnumbered any other ailments 310 vs 38. (89%)

SUMMARY

This was another successful camp for the patients, practitioners and the hospital.

We look forward to working together to continue this work in 2020 and making more improvements to its functioning and offer grateful thanks for the care and hospitality of all concerned.

[1] *[1] Although 5 (4 Male and 1 Female) patient forms are missing.