Serving the Unserved: Making Primary Healthcare Services Accessible

The Primary health care system in India went through a transformation in the last decade, however, the system remains grossly unutilized owning to a number of factors. The government public health centers provide a narrow range of healthcare services; however, the non-availability of the providers and unavailability of advanced medical facilities has led the rural population with two grim choices. The rural population either chooses to go to district hospitals that are located far off to access basic primary healthcare facilities or incur debt and avail private healthcare services. In both the scenarios, the rural population incurs out of the pocket expenditure. Currently in India, the sub-centers and Primary Health Centers serve only 20% of healthcare needs and provide services limited to reproductive, maternal, newborn, child health, and adolescent (RMNCH-A) and selective management of communicable diseases. In Gujarat, 90% of PHCs operate with a shortage of staff and there is a severe dearth of qualified doctors and lack of proper facilities. 

Health and Wellness Clinic gets launched at Lothpur village

 

District Mineral Foundation’s Health & Wellness Clinic (Arogya Seva Kendra) was opened for serving the unserved population of lothpur and nearby 15 to 20 villages in Amreli district on 15^th March 2020. This center is managed and operated by HOPS Healthcare. It is modeled on the central government’s vision of strengthening the Public health system by creating Health and Wellness centers to strengthen and deliver comprehensive primary healthcare services for the entire rural population. It fulfills the dual objective of making primary healthcare accessible covering preventive healthcare and health promotion at the community level alongside the continuum of care approach of all.

Health and wellness clinic at Lothpur village provides an expanded range of services. Along with RMNCH-A, it covers major diseases in communicable diseases and Non-communicable diseases, ophthalmic ailments, ENT, oral health management, mental health, and emergency care.

For a population that had no means to access healthcare facilities and services and had to travel a long distance to get access to proper primary health care services, having a health and wellness clinic within the vicinity is like a lifeline. A total of 3699 villagers of Lothpur and the population of the nearby 15 villages now has access to primary healthcare services and facilities.

The Components of Health and Wellness Center Covered by our Health & Wellness Clinic

 

• It strengthens the infrastructure at inaccessible areas
• Integration with robust IT system that solidifies health information system of the government
• Continuum of Care via – telehealth and two-way referral mechanism
• Expansion of health services to be delivered closer to the community
• Provision of free medicines & expanding diagnostics – Point of Care facilities and new technologies
• Community mobilization and health promotion

Services provided at Arogya Seva Kendra

 

• Screening and Management of Non-Communicable Diseases
• Screening and Management of Communicable Diseases
• Care for common ENT problem
• OPD management
• Basic Dental healthcare
• Screening and Basic management of mental health ailments
• Geriatric and palliative healthcare services
• Neonatal and infant health care services
• Family planning and counseling services
• Childhood and adolescent health care services
• Basic Emergency Care and medical services
• Provides 50+ pathology tests
• Generic medicines provided free of cost through an in-house pharmacy
• Telemedicine Consultation with the specialist from Tier – 1 cities.
• Trained medical staff consisting of MBBS Doctor, laboratory technician, radiologist technician, Nurse, and a pharmacist.
• ICT Platform
  • Robust ICT Platform that meets the need of all stakeholders. It provides historical patient data with the facility to store patients’ medical records for up to five years in digital format.
  • Population health analytics that enables the government to come up with better schemes and strengthen the dissemination of Primary Healthcare services. Tracks and supports upward and downward referrals to support continuity of care
  • Captures, stores and transmits medical imageries to support teleconsultation, referral and follow up.

Capacity Building of the staff of Health & Wellness Clinic

 

The medical staff deployed at the Health and Wellness Clinic underwent a training of 7 days that focused on training the staff to utilize point of care medical devices, conducting telemedicine calls with the specialists on the platform, maintaining digital records of the patients and detailed overview of the ICT platform for patient management, telemedicine consultation, two-way referral management and inventory management and Drug and Vaccine Delivery Management Systems. (DVDMS). The clinic is operated by a staff of six people including an MBBS doctor, lab technician, radiology technician, a pharmacist and a nurse.

How Health & Wellness Clinic Benefits Rural Population

 

Lothpur village in Jafrabad district doesn’t have adequate public health medical infrastructure. The village lacks basic healthcare facilities such as pharmacy and primary health centers. Villagers had no choice but to either travel a long distance to access basic healthcare facilities or to incur extra healthcare expenditure via consulting a private provider. The health and wellness clinic at Lothpur will provide villagers better access to comprehensive primary healthcare services. It’s designed keeping in mind the needs of the rural population.  To ensure that villagers don’t have to travel to multiple places to access pathology, and pharmacy, the clinic provides all the facilities at one place.

How HWCs achieve better Population Health Outcomes

 

As an outcome of HWC government is able to reach a larger population that was devoid of healthcare facilities.   

• On average, 45 patients visit clinics to avail healthcare facilities.
• Decrease in out of pocket expenditure and catastrophic health expenditure
• Health Risk mitigation with immediate treatment and telemedicine consultation facilities
• Decongestion of secondary and tertiary health facilities.
• This leads to increased responsiveness.

Summary

 

Health remains a state subject in India and it’s upon the state to ensure that the primary healthcare system is strengthened. The DMF’s Health and wellness clinic operated and managed by HOPS Healthcare is an initiative to upgrade the medical infrastructure and bridge the existing healthcare delivery gap and support government’s effort to make Comprehensive Primary Healthcare Services (CPHS) accessible to the rural population. It will play a key role in connecting with secondary and tertiary centers through better referral management. HWC covers the wider scope to make preventive, promotive, and curative healthcare accessible to the underserved population. A population of 3699 residing in Lothpur and nearby 15 villages will be able to access primary healthcare services within the vicinity. 10 more health and wellness clinics are planned in the state. The dream of access to equitable healthcare for all has been a long-standing one for India; through our endeavor of Health and wellness clinics, we are collaborating with the government to work towards making healthcare for all accessible. For more information on the project write to us at info@hops.healthcare.