CM flags off mobile medical units

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday flagged off 78 mobile medical units that will provide health services to people living in hilly remote areas, areas which are far-off from the health centres, areas with poor transport connectivity and areas which are mostly inhabited by Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes population. According to a press release from the Health Department, each mobile unit has been equipped with medical equipment, drugs and consumables as per the National Mobile Medical Unit Service-Guidelines. Each unit has a MBBS doctor, a staff nurse, a pharmacist, a laboratory technician, an ANM and a driver. For each unit, in a taluk, 13 to 15 eligible villages have been identified for service. The unit will visit these villages at least four or five times a month. From Monday to Saturday, one village will be covered from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. and another village from 2-30 p.m. to 5 p.m. Each day the unit will visit the identified village, and will provide clinical examination, laboratory investigations, treatment and follow-up of patients, free of cost to all sections of the society. The unit will also screen the villagers for diabetes mellitus, hypertension, chronic respiratory diseases, arthritis and other ailments and will refer the cases to higher centres for confirmation of the diagnosis, provide treatment and will follow them up in subsequent visits, the release said. Of the 78 units, 64 units are funded by the National Health Mission (60 per cent of funding is from NHM and 40 per cent from the State government). 14 units have been started from the State’s Special Component Plan and Tribal Sub-Plan funds in 14 Reserved Legislative Assembly Constituencies of Raichur, Kalaburagi, Koppal, Vijayapura, Ballari, Davanagere and Chitradurga districts.

From next year, all units will be fitted with GPS and will be brought under a centralised online monitoring system. 50 more units will one added to the fleet by the end of this year at a cost of Rs 48.39 cr., the release added.