Medical health camps

As part of the outreach programme created by the Anand Dhara project to promote good primary care in all the villages, the hospital organises medical camps to be held in different villages each month. The programming arrangements start one month before the actual day – the location of the camp is agreed with the local village Sarpanch team – usually village school buildings and grounds. Marketing of the camp is then carried out through sign boards in that village and surrounding few villages combined with leaflet drops and SMS messages.

On the actual day, normally Sunday, when most of the hospital doctors have a free day, they give their service voluntarily with the help of a few nurses and admin volunteers. Hundreds of villagers come to these camps for any medical issues they may have. The camp is divided into separate departments – general medical issues like Blood pressure, diabetes etc, optician, dentist, etc. The villagers register their medical issues with the admin desk and are given different ticket numbers for their issues. The medical checks by the doctors are very brief and the main aim of these camps is to pick up any real medical issues. If they do pick up any issues which need further investigation, they are given a letter to come to Jay Ambe Hospital where they can be tested properly and any appropriate treatment given free of charge.

These camps have created a huge positive health awareness amongst the local population. When possible, health awareness talks with audio visual have been given. In the villages, people are wary of modern medical treatment and generally resort to traditional treatments and methods. This is a huge challenge of changing the traditional mindset and putting faith in modern science and medicine. Brahmanand mission believes that it is gradually winning this challenge as every year more and more patients are coming to the hospital.