Indian firm hosts successful health camp |19 August 2019

Indian company Wellspring India Meditour in collaboration with Dr Murthy’s Clinic hosted a three-day medical camp over the weekend, from August 16-18.

Although it was not free, over 90 patients took part in the camp where they were consulted by world class specialist doctors, namely, Dr Nigel Symms and Dr Ashwini Sadaxhivan.

Dr Symms is a consultant neurosurgeon with experience in paediatric neurosurgery in Japan and functional neurosurgery in Australia while Dr Ashwini is an infertility and IVF specialist and gyneacologist.

Srinivasa Raghavan, director and chief executive of Wellspring, and his colleague Ravindar Arcot, director and global business head at the same company were both satisfied with the turnout.

Mr Raghavan noted that the medical camp is the first in a series of camps that they will undertake in Seychelles.

On his part, Dr Murthy explained that they chose to bring the two specialists in neurosurgery and infertility because he saw a great demand for these types of consultations in Seychelles.

“I see quite a few couples here who are unable to conceive so they want to know of the next step forward. There are more modern technologies to assist in that regard; they can gain information about that and, if they are interested, they can go for it.”

“We have received really good response,” Dr Murthy noted.

Dr Ashwini explained that the NU Hospitals in Bangalore, India where she is based, provides various expert treatments relating to low sperm count, sexual dysfunctions, erectile dysfunctions, penile implant and IVF.

Given that she specialises in infertility and gynaecology, Dr Ashwini explains that she has referred several male patients who attended the camp to a urologist back at NU Hospitals, such as a small child with under-descended testes who has been requested to meet with a urologist.

One of the most noticeable trend, Dr Ashwini offered, is that most women who came to the camp were trying to conceive at a later age, beyond the age of 35 years old which is something that can affect fertility further.

She further met with some patients who had gone through the IVF process before.

“Some of them also had fibroids, blocked tubes and a few of them had polycystic ovaries as well. Very few of them had husband sperm count that was on the lower side.”

Some patients have been requested to undertake simple treatments such as ovulation induction drugs, which can be taken in Seychelles, but more complicated treatments such as IVF will necessitate overseas treatment.

IVF is not a fertility treatment that is presently available in Seychelles.

For facilitation of overseas treatment in India, Dr Murthy’s Clinic has been designated as the local contact point with patients in Seychelles while Wellspring is responsible to facilitate a large network of health care providers in India, enabling communications between the patients and their hospitals, providing concierge services and accompanying the patients throughout their medical stay in India.

For his part, Dr Symms has also seen a number of patients with neurosurgical conditions who have been encouraged to undertake overseas treatments.

In a particular case, Dr Symms has recommended deep brain stimulation for a boy who is having abnormal movements and cannot sit still.

Dr Symms noted that he has consulted Seychellois patients with a wide range of interesting cases from abnormal movements, also called dystonia, to brain cysts, back and spinal problems, epilepsy and hydrocephalus (extra fluids in the brain).

“Those which can be managed and treated medically or through physiotherapy can be done locally, but others will require surgery,” Dr Symms added.

“I don’t find Seychelles to be different from other parts of the world and they seem to be having most of the problems which we often encounter like seizures in children and back pain. These disorders are found all over and I haven’t found anything specific to the people of Seychelles,” he concluded.