One Life, One Change: When a farmer fell at a medical student’s feet

The philosophy here is Dr Rao’s belief that basic healthcare in developing countries is still “a distant and unattainable dream”. “Healthcare is a luxury because of the high cost of delivery. Free healthcare and delivery is the key to global health. This village clinic is one place where this model is in place and operational for the last 40 years,” says Dr Rao, a cardiologist by training, who gained fame as the personal physician to the famed Kannada film icon, the late Dr Rajkumar.

“These are literally cashless people,” says Dr Abhijit Bhograj, the younger son of Dr Rao and an endocrinology specialist who mans the clinic when his father cannot make it.

Started on August 15, 1973, on a portion of farm land owned by Dr Ramana Rao’s family, the clinic saw two million patients in August, when a count was last taken.

So much so, that the first patients tend to arrive as early as Saturday night, to ensure that they are first in line when Dr Rao or his sons arrive from Bengaluru to begin their work.

On Sunday mornings, by the time the doctors and support staff arrive with their stocks of medical supplies — sourced from funds generated by Dr Rao’s family, philanthropists and pharma companies — there are at least 250 waiting in line. Dr Abhijit says the clinic incurs an average cost of Rs 2 lakh per year to function every Sunday.

In Karnataka, the average income of a rural family is Rs 6,000 per month and a basic three- day stay in a hospital will cost as much as Rs 5,000, says Dr Rao. He estimates that over Rs 6,500 crore in daily earnings of patients has been saved by the clinic since it was set up.

“We see it is a challenge to keep the clinic going Sunday after Sunday. When my father started it, we did not expect it to be so big,” says Dr Abhijit.

Over the last three months, the clinic has started dental care services, too, through the philanthropic arm of the Vatsalya Centre for Oral Health in Bengaluru; the Lions Club provides free cataract surgeries, and an eye doctor visits the clinic once a month.

All patients arriving at the clinic — the majority in two separate lines for men and women are the elderly — are first screened by Dr Rao before being split according to the complaints. Later, the paramedical staff report back to Dr Rao with findings to seek the course of treatment. Advanced diagnosis is referred to government hospitals around the region.

Then again, all patients who come to the clinic on a Sunday — sometimes as many as 2,000 — are provided free food by Dr Rao making the visit from long distances less painful for some people. And, most of the dozen staff at the clinic are volunteers from villages or former patients of Dr Rao.

“I came here for the first time eight years ago with my mother. I started volunteering seven years ago because I was impressed and I wanted to help,” says the volunteer Baba Jan, an auto-rickshaw driver from Gauribidanur, some 60 km away, who helps Dr Rao at the village clinic on Sundays.

“There has been no Sunday in the last 40 years when the clinic has not functioned,” says Jan.