Association of Rural Surgeons of India /Tribal India Health Foundation

Rural Surgical Initiative

Surgery has become an essential service in comprehensive healthcare delivery systems throughout the world, and basic surgical services are important public health interventions in increasing the quality of life for the target population. While emphasis has been placed in providing preventive and curative medical care in rural areas of India, secondary-level surgical care continues to be deficient. Due to a paucity of surgeons, surgical facilities, and instruments, basic injuries, ligations, and excisions are often unable to be managed properly by existing healthcare institutions. The distance to the nearest secondary surgical unit from a rural area is often too far to reach, and places patients in unnecessarily life-threatening situations. 

As such, the Tribal India Health Foundation is working with the Association of Rural Surgeons of India with the purpose of increasing the quality of surgical care in tribal areas of India, via the formal program “Sustaining Surgical Knowledge for the Poor”. The Foundation and ARSI aims to fulfill the following objectives under the “Sustaining Surgical Knowledge for the Poor” program:

1) Ensure the continuation of annual national ARSI conferences and bulletin dealing with discussion of new rural surgical management systems and procedures throughout India

2) Continue to collect and send surgical supplies, including sutures, pulse oxymeters, gloves, scalpels, etc... to partner health initiatives

3) Recruit surgeons from the United States on a voluntary basis to assist in providing basic surgical care at partner tribal health initiatives for a short period of time.

4) Secure funds for expansion and development of basic surgical facilities in tribal areas

5) Provide rural surgeons with education materials on the latest developments and methods in basic surgery

The Foundation invites individuals, organizations, and surgeons to take part in the initiative by:

1) Collecting surgical supplies for partner tribal health initiatives
2) Volunteering to provide surgical services at partner tribal health initiatives for the span of around 2 weeks (surgeons only)

Please contact the Foundation at info@tihf.org for more information.