Sansad Mobile Swasthya
Sansad Mobile Swasthya (SMS) Seva is public healthcare program started by Anurag Thakur[1], Member of Parliament from Himachal Pradesh. Sansad Mobile Swasthya Seva comprises of Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) which ply to remote rural villages in Hamirpur parliamentary constituency of Himachal Pradesh. This program began on the 14th of April 2018, birth anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar[2]. Within, 85 days of operations, the SMS Seva has been able to provide primary health care to more than 15,000 people across 200 plus gram panchayats.
History[edit]
Himachal Pradesh is one of the seven special category states of India which are named thus owing to the extreme circumstances under which people have to live in these states. Himachal Pradesh is prone to many types of natural disasters and also extreme weather conditions. People have to undergo harsh lifestyle in order to survive under such circumstances. Despite considerable progress in the state in terms of improving social indicators, there's a need to create sustainable infrastructure aimed at inclusive development. In the Hamirpur constituency, there are only ninety primary health centers (PHC) with many of them plaguing with lack of trained healthcare workers.[3] Several sub-centers and community health centers (CHC) lack basic medical equipment and medicines. In such a situation, the local elected representative of three times, Anurag Singh Thakur, with the help of a hyper-local Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) Paryas Society started the Sansad Mobile Swasthya Seva. SMS Seva as it is popularly called locally, currently runs a fleet of ten mobile medical units in different blocks of the Hamirpur constituency.
Technology[edit]
SMS Seva uses state-of-the-art Accuster mobile pathology laboratories to conduct forty different medical tests.[4] These mobile labs have also been by several military institutions of India. SMS Seva also has Electro Cardio Grams (ECG) and ophthalmoscope as well as an optometric eye chart. Among other tests, SMS Seva runs free kidney function test, liver function test, lipid profile test, electrolyte tests and hemoglobin tests. SMS Seva introduced, for the first time in India, early screening for breast cancer tumors. They use highly powerful LED lights to detect possible tumors in the breasts and such cases are referred urgently for mammography. The entire fleet of MMUs are integrated through a software that tries to optimize the fleet performance, timing of the vehicles as well as daily reporting of the status of OPDs by each MMU.
Advisors and team[edit]
Owing to the scale of services and reach to the people, the SMS Seva has attracted some of the best team of advisors from India and abroad. It has onboard Dr. Alan Prem Kumar, the renowned cancer specialist from Singapore; Dr. Gaurav Agarwal, from PGIMS, Chandigarh; Dr. Vijay Mahajan, Tagore Hospitals, Jalandhar among others. SMS Seva also has a full-time public policy and project consultant, CV Srikar, previously a LAMP Fellow with PRS Legislative Research. The operations of the fleet are managed by hospitals management professionals. Each of the MMU has a health officer, a nurse, a lab technician. Similarly, each block has two mobilizers who ensure that the mobilization of people to ensure they get full benefits of these services. SMS Seva is able to employ a large number of people indirectly as well. All the primary services and medicines in the SMS Seva are given free of cost to the people.
Women empowerment[edit]
SMS Seva has several unique achievements to its credit. Unlike PHCs where most of the beneficiaries are male, the SMS Seva has been able to attract a large number of female residents of the village. There are more than 80% of the SMS Seva's beneficiaries being women. This could be because of the very nature of an MMU as well as because most of the health workers of the SMS Seva are female health workers. It has provided primary health care to more than 8000 women in its three months of starting the services.
References[edit]
- ↑ Thakur, Anurag. "Anurag Thakur".
- ↑ Ambedkar, Bhimrao. "B. R. Ambedkar".
- ↑ Salve, Prahci (2018-08-21). "With health funds unused, 24%-38% shortfall in medicines, medical staff". Business Standard. Retrieved 2018-08-24.
- ↑ Amar Ujala, Bureau (2018-04-15). "मोबाइल अस्पताल सेवा शुरू, मुफ्त होंगे 40 तरह के टेस्ट". Amar Ujala (in hindi). Retrieved 2018-08-24.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
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