HEALTH

Kai Raasi Clinic

Kai Raasi Clinic is a community health clinic promoted to provide basic medical services for the benefit of the people residing in villages located far from the nearest government health facility especially Primary Health Centres (PHC). Kai Raasi clinics function on the cost-recoverable-from-community basis for the clinical services provided. The clinics function five or six days in a week as agreed by the local public and Panchayat. The Kai Raasi Clinic at Kanchipuram consists of a team of qualified medical practitioners, paramedics, and counsellors to provide basic health services. The health centre does not have a diagnostic facility but helps in referring patients to the nearest medical facility for further treatment. Medicines, mostly generics, are provided to the patients free of cost. In this model, doctors and paramedics are provided transport facility besides other benefits. The clinic is also linked to a waste management agency for proper biomedical waste disposal.

Patient Record Management: EDPS2000 – high-end software is used to assist the technician in maintaining the medical history of patients, in suggesting the tests that need to be performed, and to evaluate possible causes based on the symptoms displayed. In the case of major illnesses or when the diagnosis is not clear, the computer output will propose further tests and referrals.
Awareness: Patients visiting Kai Raasi clinic are also provided health education by the staff through posters and audiovisual demonstrations to build awareness on communicable diseases.

SHG Health Training

It is a widely held belief that if you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a family. This is the objective of SHG health training imparted to the women by Hand in Hand India. Better awareness and emphasis on behaviour change will not only improve the morbidity profile and living conditions of the SHG women but also improve the man-day contribution to economic activity, productivity during working hours, decrease in financial shocks arising from health conditions and an increase in real income through reduced health expenses. The modules for this training are developed under the overarching framework of the UN Millennium Development Goals. The motive is to spread awareness on health and hygiene practices, bring about behaviour change to encourage health practices in their households and community at large.

THE TOPICS COVERED UNDER TRAINING INCLUDE

Personal Hygiene & WASH (construction of toilets, its finance and usage and school sanitation safe drinking water and food practices, hand washing)
Maternal & Child Health Care (ANC, PNC, institutional health delivery and immunisation)
Anaemia & Nutrition (Nutrition during pregnancy, breastfeeding, adolescent nutrition, obesity)
Community Health (Health delivery system, role of health institutions, health rights)
The SHG training module on Health, Hygiene and Sanitation for SHG members are intended to have a great impact on the rural SHG households.
Modus Operandi: The duration of the training programme is 5 to 6 days. The duration is arrived at keeping in mind the circumstances of an average SHG woman i.e., functional literacy level/primary education, ability to spend time for training, need to attend to domestic/economic activity,

Medical Camp

In the absence of adequate medical facilities in the villages, the medical camps organised by the SEED Trust not only provides adequate medical care and attention but also provides constant health monitoring. Besides ailing people, the medical camps cater to pregnant women, adolescent girls, children from the Anganwadi and school and elderly residents. The aim of the medical camp is to provide healthcare services to meet the immediate health care needs of the marginalised community in remote rural areas through standalone camps. Customised health camps are organised extensively across the country offering comprehensive health services – curative, preventive and referral, to a large number of people in selected intervention areas. The medical camps, which works on ‘free for all’ basis ensures equal access to healthcare with state-of-the-art equipment and medical resources. So far over 5, 410 medical camps have been conducted across the several project areas and over 4,89,786 residents have benefited. Besides medical services being provided through the camps, the residents are given awareness and educational training on good and bad health practices. A counsellor accompanies the camp team and holds health education sessions while the patients await their turn to meet the doctor.

Special permission is sought from the respective government authorities; so as to avoid duplication and over coverage to villages which are also covered by the government mobile medical vans. These camps address the accessibility issues (of distance, time, cost and opportunity). They help in reducing chronicity of an ailment by getting them addressed early at their doorsteps. Specialty camps are held as per need. Multi-disciplinary camps include Gynaecology, Paediatric, Ophthalmology, Dental services etc. Medical camps are generally held for a day and the follow-up camps last for a day or two, depending on the need and the population size of the area. The medical camp team consists of a supervisor, a doctor, a nurse/pharmacist and mobilisers.
Patients are treated for simple illnesses, and cases requiring advanced medical care are referred to government-run medical institutions. These cases are revisited when the medical camp is conducted again and the progress monitored.

Follow-up is conducted by the community organisers to ensure follow-up check-up by the doctor, in case of need. Close collaboration with the government PHC and its staff is ensured. Upgradation of PHC infrastructure and/or additional equipment support is provided to the PHC. The uniqueness of the model lies in its comprehensive approach where health promotion and prevention are given equal importance while curative care is being administered.

Providing affordable nephrological services

Basic health care services continue to elude large parts of the rural India. Hand in Hand India has been bridging this critical gap through multiple interventions that provide the rural poor access to health care. Hand in Hand India has partnered with Timken Foundation and Vijay Ganga Trust to develop infrastructure and provide affordable nephrological services to rural population and create a pool of qualified dialysis technicians. Nephrological services are expensive and due to its long-term requirement (dialysis is for life unless transplantation of kidney is done) and can financially drain the family.
The project aims at establishing a state-of-the-art nephrology facility offering affordable kidney care through an 8-bed dialysis centre, an outpatient department, in-patient ward, emergency services and an in-house laboratory. A state-of-the-art training centre for technicians and nurses and a centre for preventive medicine are also in the offing.

About Timken Foundation

Timken Foundation funds global health causes related to specific diseases and conditions, as well as wide-ranging global issues such as those related to women’s health.

About Vijay Ganga Trust

Vijay Ganga Speciality Care (VGSC) is non-profit organisation started in 2012, June by American Board certified Nephrologist Dr Sarita Vinod Dasari. With more than a decade of experience in early recognition, patient education, and prevention of the onset and progression of kidney and heart disease, the Trust aims to address the growing occurrence of kidney-related illnesses, improve the quality of dialysis care, and promote awareness on kidney-related disorders in the community.

Case Study

Police Inspector Karthika from Kanchipuram has been visiting the Kai Raasi clinic facility set up by SEED Trust for the last five years. Her family members, from her three-year-old son to her 75-year-old grandfather have been taking treatment from the clinic. Besides free consultation, patients are given medicines at just a minimal cost of INR 30 and mild dosage is prescribed to the patients. However, for specialised care patients are referred to government hospital or PHC or private hospital for further diagnosis. “My mother was suffering from a grave ulcer and it was treated only by doctors here. My father, who is suffering from sugar and BP also takes treatment from here. Besides good treatment and service I can also leave them alone at the clinic, I can rest assured that the nurses will take good care of them,” adds Karthika.
A good doctor is not only one who makes a good diagnosis, but one who inculcates a good relation with the patient. Dr Lalitha, from the Kai Raasi clinic in Kanchipuram claims that the patients in the Kai Raasi clinic are like family and they would not prefer to go to any other place for diagnosis. “Most patients here are treated for diabetes, hypertension cough, cold and wheezing issues and no higher medicines is given, though sometimes we refer the patients to the GH or diagnostic centres for further analysis. Patients as old as 104 years have been receiving treatment from the Kai Raasi clinic. The routine consultation and check-up for the patients starts at 9:30 AM and goes on till 12:30 PM. Besides regular check-up, the patients are given oral awareness training on several health issues including malnutrition, pregnancy, hand washing, hygienic use of toilets, details about the Govt. helpline number and other schemes. With a footfall ranging from 90 to 100 patients on an average, the patients, mostly belonging to BPL families come from as far as Arakkonam and Cheyyar regions. “The reason for this huge number is free consultation and medicines available at a meagre price of INR 30. Medicines costing INR 120 to INR 150 are being given at this rate,” adds doctor N Jeevika. However, a common threat raised by the doctors here is Calcium deficiency problem faced by most of the women. In a bid to overcome this widespread issue SEED Trust provides free calcium tablets and nutrition supplements for every women stepping into the clinic.
Open defaecation is a social evil, which cannot be eradicated merely by providing sanitary complexes, but by inculcating a habit of using the toilets among the beneficiaries. A case in point is Saroja Rajendiran from T Puthur village in Musiri Panchayat, Trichy district. Living with her two children, who have well reached the threshold of adulthood, the family still practices open defaecation and their toilet stands stacked with firewood logs to be used for cooking. Owing to this unhygienic practice Saroja suffered from frequent health issues and had to shell out on hospital expenses. However, it was not long before she realised the personal and social ill-effects of open defaecation through a health module training conducted by Sheela, a community organiser of SEED Trust, who highlighted the importance of toilet use. The session created such a huge impact on her that she immediately renovated the toilet built in her home and not only made use of it but also encouraged her children to switch to the good habit.
Bala Abirami from Trichy, proud mother of a toddler and a 5-year-old, shudders to think that she had not gotten her children vaccinated at the right age. It was after attending training on vaccination conducted by the SEED Trust that Bala learnt of the vaccination schedules from birth to adolescence. The module also oriented her on the services available for mothers and children at the Anganwadi. Following the training, Bala is proud and happy that SEED Trust has helped her learn about the importance of vaccination.