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Health facilities for slum dwellers launched in City
Health service for the slum dwellers was launched in the City on Sunday under the Urban Health Plan. A first of its kind in Madhya Pradesh, the ?Outreach Health Service? was launched in four centres to cater to the health needs of the slum dwellers, who remain away from the ambit of regular health centres.
Health service for the slum dwellers was launched in the City on Sunday under the Urban Health Plan. A first of its kind in Madhya Pradesh, the ‘Outreach Health Service’ was launched in four centres to cater to the health needs of the slum dwellers, who remain away from the ambit of regular health centres.
“We are very happy with the response. Nearly 2,000 persons, mostly pregnant women, visited the camp,” coordinator of the Urban Health Plan Dr Gagan Gupta said. Four slum clusters across the city, Kamal Community Hall, Khajarana; New Bharati Vidya Mandir, Pavanpuri; Jeevandeep Knitting Centre, Moosakhedi and Jagannath Nagar, Banganga, have been identified where camp would be held on the first Sunday of every month, he said.
The Health Department, in partnership with the private sector, has come up with this novel idea to take to the slums dwellers all possible health services, particularly health care for the mother and the child. These camps have been organised with the help of Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC).
The service has been started after an intensive survey carried out with the help of IIM, Indore. Persons living in the slum areas can’t afford private treatment and they choose to ignore the government health facilities, as most of the slums are not near any of the hospitals, Dr Gupta said adding, “hence these people tend to go to quacks. The kind of treatment these quacks give is really doubtful. It can also prove fatal.”
The only way to prevent this was to take the doctors to their doorsteps, which formed the basis of these outreach camps. People from nearly 100 slums came to avail the facilities provided at the four centers.
“Unlike typical government hospital approach, the patients were treated as if it was a private clinic. There were four experts each — gynaecologists, paediatrics, skin and STD experts and medicine experts — at the four centres. The people were given OPD cards, which would be valid for the next three months,” informed Dr Gupta. .
“Our focus this time was mother and child care, reproductive health and sexually transmitted diseases. But as many areas are prone to chickungunya, we also examined those with viral fever,” he added.
“We also went in for immunization of pregnant women. We are hopeful, by the next camp, we would be able to include child immunization too,” Dr Gupta, who himself was present at the camp, said.
Department’s ANMs and volunteers from NGOs CECOEDECON, IDSS, Pushpakunj and Bal Niketan Sangh mobilized the slum dwellers to attend the camp. “We are also in talks with the State Bank of Indore for additional medicines. By the next camp, we would be getting that so as to reach out to more and more people,” Gupta added.
