Project to map construction workers’ health

A pilot project started by a construction company in partnership with Sion Hospital to digitise construction workers’ medical records may help map and improve the health of migrant labourers in the city.

A pilot project started by a construction company in partnership with Sion Hospital to digitise construction workers’ medical records may help map and improve the health of migrant labourers in the city.

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There are around 27 lakh construction workers in the city.

“Presently, no health records are available for construction workers. We do not know their immunity pattern or their susceptibility to diseases. The digitised health records will help us map disease patterns and causative factors,” said Dr Ramesh Chaturvedi, head, preventive and social medicine department, Sion Hospital.

Housing Development Infrastructure Limited (HDIL) and Vascon Engineers, which are carrying out construction at a 55 acre site at Kurla, have decided to get health check-ups done for their 2,000 workers and upload the information on the company website. Each worker will be given a unique identification number.

Last May, HDIL had sought help from Sion Hospital’s preventive and social medicine department to control the spread of malaria at its Kurla site. A team of 10 doctors and medical social workers have been monitoring the site every day and conducting awareness programmes.

Workers will not have to be screened for physical fitness every time they seek treatment. Doctors would be able to access the health history by logging on to the company’s website.

A worker’s web profile will have his health history, anaemia profile, instances of relapse, hearing and vision check up details and information about possible addictions.

Doctors from Sion Hospital will also analyse the data. “Every disease has a particular trend, and if that trend is changing we will be able to detect that,” said Dr Chaturvedi.