Dates of Trip: 5th-12th December
Organisation followed: A Call To Share (ACTS)
Trip leaders: Tay Theng Yi, Jaymie Tan
Location: Anisakan, Myanmar
The 2019 Myanmar Outreach medical team consisted of 5 pre-clinical students, 4 clinical students (including a medical student from UNSW who joined through ACTS but helped to manage the clinic as well) and 6 doctors. We ran 5 days of clinics, visited the village to deliver packages and had 1 day of R&R. The other days were spent travelling and settling down. Altogether, there were about 60 people from the ACTS team who travelled with us with other people running English/baking classes.
Our clinics are set up in the village of Anisakan, which is an hour bus ride away from the Mandalay International airport. During our clinics, we were in charge of triaging the patients – Taking their medical history and vital signs, and also helped to dispense medication. The trip doctors also share interesting cases with the medical students. This is the second year in which the EMR system was being implemented during clinic sessions. Whilst this system ensures continuity, more can be improved to search for returning patients as it is not as effective as it should be. We have also used an excel sheet for stock taking of our medications. This increases the efficiency of dispensing and taking stock of remaining medications. Frequent errors are also made as multiple people access the system during clinic hours.
ACTS is very keen to keep working with us medical students. Although we are unable to go over in 2020, we are still in contact with Dr Iris who will head the medical team in 2021! The trip has been memorable and very enjoyable.