Pilots of the Project
Bharat Forge Ltd and Doorstep Health Services Pune and Maharashtra Arogya Mandal Pune in association with a telemedicine clinic at Adarsh village Fadalewadi, Uglewadi in Ambegaon taluka is a great initiative.
Initially citizens did not know much about telemedicine clinics. People wondered if online patients will get better? Will good drugs be available? There were many such questions in people’s mind . We then explained to people by visiting them and calling them to the clinic. People shared their experiences with others. From the experience, patients started to increase. This telemedicine clinic has been made available in such a convenient manner that it is affordable for common, rural people and is making a huge difference.
Demonstration of telemedicine to the Community
Seeing the response from the citizens, we started implementing new activities. An online health education session is held once a week for the villagers on topics like knee pain, heart disorders, diseases occurring during monsoons. Such meetings are attended by a large number of people.
Hemoglobin Checking at the Clinic
We conducted a survey of BP/ Sugar and Haemoglobin for persons in the village. Now we call them for review every three months. The patient feels very supported as BP, sugar are checked. If women have any questions or problems, they can ask questions freely to the lady doctors.
Ready for Outreach Services
This telemedicine clinic is not only used by Fadalewadi village but also neighbouring villages. Now we go twice a week on Wednesdays and Saturdays (outreach activity) to give medicine to the people there, so the people there save the trouble of coming and going and the old people get treatment at home. They are very satisfied with this. They want this clinic to continue like this forever.
Nagzari Arogya Rakshak:
Nagzari clinic was inaugurated on 1st August 2022.
When the telemedicine clinic was first started in the village, people did not know anything about telemedicine. Now the patients themselves freely talk to the doctors and the clinic is getting a lot of trust and response from the people. Also, some patients themselves tell us that instead of spending Rs 300/- to Rs 350/- outside, we get good quality facilities in our clinic for five rupees.
Girja Shankar Wadi is fifteen kilometers from Nagzari. So a patient from this village (Hemant Anna Salunkhe) came to the patient clinic. He told us that he had been suffering from back pain and joint pain for a long time and had taken many drug treatments. After that he visited our clinic and interacted with the doctor. He was counselled by a senior doctor who gave him complete advice and medications. He got a good result from that medicine.
He visited the clinic 3-4 times, took the medicine, attended physiotherapy classes (held online at the clinic) and it made a great difference to him. He went to his sarpanch and told his sarpanch that this clinic has the best kind of medicine and the guidance of the doctor is best. Invite them to your village one day in a week. We then got a call from the sarpanch of Girja Shankarwadi, sister, you should come to Girja Shankarwadi for outreach one day in a week!
A Group Physiotherapy Class in Progress
Also, when we go to Mulikwadi, Kombadwadi and other settlements in Nagzari, we get a good response. On our outreach days, ( Wednesday and Saturday ) patients call from eight o’clock in the morning. Is sister going to come to our wadi today? They all wait for us to come eagerly. Their response makes us enjoy our work a lot.
There is an ashram school in Nagzari. The teachers bring the children to our clinic to check them and call us at the school themselves. The Headmaster of the school informed about the excellent service provided by the facility to his higher office and the seniors in the office were very appreciative of the facility.
Health Talk for Students
Chikhli Arogya Rakshak
Once an incident happened when we went to the wadi, we were checking patients there while our work was going on and a lady came there with her husband aged 57years. The uncle was feeling very weak when he came near us we asked him to sit still and gave him water to drink. His wife, she told me that he was working in the sun. He suddenly shouted to me, “Oh, what’s happening to me, my head is spinning?” I gave him water and he felt a little better but his dizziness continued and so we came home. And now we thought you have come and came here. We checked all vital parameters of the patient and connected with the Doctor on telemedicine. The doctor questioned the patient, examined him online with our help and gave them a prescription. We provided them the medicines and advised on how to take them.
Three days later, when we went for our visit, they met us and told us that the medicine you gave me really helped me recover.
Doctor Consulting on Telemedicine
Telemedicine at the Doorstep