The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is set to launch its ‘India Health Line’ programme in Kolkata in April. Under the programme — already operational in eight cities — the VHP arranges free medical facilities for the poor. At least 200 doctors have already been empanelled in the city to provide this service.
International working president of VHP, Praveen Togadia, who was in Kolkata on Thursday, said he was happy with the “service” being provided by the VHP in the state.
“We have a central call centre for the programme. The moment we receive a call from a patient, we arrange an appointment with a doctor. There is no consultation charge. For further treatment, we guide the patient to organisations that serve the people,” Togadia told.
He added that already 5,000 specialist doctors had come forward to provide free medical consultation to poor patients. “The programme will be extended to every state and every district headquarters in six months,” said Togadia.
Togadia, who himself is a medical professional, said that not only doctors, VHP has also roped in several super-speciality hospitals who have offered services like one free cardio surgery and neuro treatment every week.
The teams of doctors would visit remote areas of the state and provide free medical check up to villagers. “We will soon launch another medical drive under the programme. Our teams would visit those areas where people cannot get proper treatment for social and financial reasons,” said Togadia.
In the next phase, VHP will launch another programme called ‘Detecting Undetected Diseases’. “Diseases like hypertension, obesity, diabetes and anaemia often go undetected among villagers and they suffer. Our doctors would reach them, detect the disease, if any, and treat the villagers,” said Togadia. “There is a common toll free number across the country (18602333666) and any poor patient calling this number would be directed to the local health coordinator.”
No comments:
Post a Comment