Rural Health Care
We provide affordable quality health care to the rural poor catering to basic health problems, medical tests and cataract and cleft lip/palate operation
About You
About You
First Name
Anant
Last Name
Nevatia
Twitter URL
https://twitter.com/#!/anant63
About Your Organization
Organization Name
Rural Health Care Foundation
Organization Website
Organization Country
India, WB, Kolkata
Country where this project is creating social impact
India, WB, Kolkata
Is your organization a
Non‐profit/NGO/citizen sector organization
How long has your organization been operating?
1‐5 years
Has the organization received awards or honors? Please tell us about them
Apeejay Indian Volunteer Award 2011, ABP Salaam Bengal Award 2011 and Indian School of Business iDiya Challenge Award
References - Please provide two references with a two-sentence biography, email address, and phone number for each
Rajesh Jain: e- mail rkjain11@hotmail.com Mobile no. 9836080488
Hemant Duggar e-mail chdugar@gmail.com Mobile no. 9831025125
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Innovation
Select the stage that best applies to your solution
Scaling (the next step will be growing impact on a regional or even global scale)
How long have you been in operation?
Operating for 1‐5 years
The Need: What problem are you trying to solve?
In India, 78% of the population of India stay in rural areas but only 2% of qualified medical practitioners are available in rural sector. Public health care delivery system is of low quality and inefficient. The fear of hidden cost, poor services, gender discrimination in case of female patients and dearth of qualified doctors make villagers hesitant to go for other public or private health facilities. Thus the villagers turn to quacks for medical help who charge hugely for the treatment. Since there is no knowledge regarding health insurance, villagers themselves has to bear 80% of their health expenses. The nearest medical facility is in the district township which makes it inconvenient as well as expensive to travel. Moreover there is no basic awareness among the villagers.
The Solution: What is your solution? Be specific!
We deliver affordable quality primary health care to rural areas. Our centres are where medical infrastructure is poor or far. In consultation with qualified medical professionals, we distribute free medicine to our patients. We charge only rs 30 for treatment, reducing the dominance of quacks. Our centres are strategically accessible, many female patients come to us now making, a dramatic change in the rural society. Our Medical services help in decreasing the amount of burden from the district hospitals. Since we provide basic treatment for dental and eye facilities, patients irrespective of age come for medical assistance. Our treatments have generated a sense of hygiene and sanitation through which many diseases can be prevented. Now they are more aware of oral hygiene and eye correction procedures. Besides to bring a sustained relief and care to needy patients we provide wheel chairs, artificial limbs to invalid people and spectacles at a subsidized rate along with required power
The Model: Walk us through a specific example of how your solution makes a difference; include your primary activities
Our main mission is to provide primary health care to the rural poor and for that we open medical centres at places where there is a dearth of proper medical infrastructure. The first step towards it starts with choosing a proper location and conducting a survey of the proposed area to ascertain the suitability place in terms of mainly, accessibility of the place for communication, water and electricity. Next we make a legal contract with the landlord as all our centres are rented. After this the building structure is renovated to suit the cause of the centre. Announcement regarding the opening of the centre is made in the local language and leaflets are distributed around the area. Every centre has four department namely General Medicine, Dental, Eye and Homeopathy. In every centres doctors are given both food and boarding. In each centre support staffs are recruited locally to get a better understanding of the cultural ethos of the area. Each centre comprises of 1 MBBS, 1BDS, 1BHMS and 1 Optometrist and 5 support staffs. More than 160 types of allopathic medicines and 500 types of homeopathy medicines are available in our centres six days a week and throughout the year to provide uninterrupted service to the people. Each patient is at first registered and a token is issued against a deposit of Rs.30/- only. With the token they are guided by our support staff to the respective department for their check up and later provided with appropriate medicines. All medical tests except diabetes tests are performed at a subsidized rate by a laboratory located near the centre.
The Marketplace: Who are your peers and competitors? Identify others also working to address the needs you are and what differentiates you from them. What challenges could these players pose to your success or growth?
We are the only healthcare enterprise in rural sector which have multiple centres working round the year. But enterprises like Alka in Gujarat, Arth in Rajasthan, Kurji/ Mahavir Vaatsalya Aspatal in Bihar and Lifespring Hospitals in Andhra Pradesh have one centre each. Our model where we lessen the burden on the government hospitals and reinforce ground reality is under research at Indian School of Business, Hyderabad for replication. With the opening of a new centre, a bus stop is constructed consequently, shops sprout up and the local transport operators begin to earn more. Even patients from urban areas come for treatment. UNICEF has recently inspected one of our centres and appreciated our work specially the communication and trust that we have gained from the local people.
This Entry is about (Issues)
Social Impact
Founding Story: We want to hear about your "Aha!" moment. Share the story of where and when the founder(s) saw this solution's potential to change the world.
Arun Nevatia got Cancer at the age of 10. When his friends were enjoying a normal childhood, Arun had to go through chemotherapy and radio therapy. After finishing his school, he joined the business of housing construction and worked for 20 years. During this time, a sense dawned upon him that it was the power of affordability in terms of good doctors and expensive medicines that he could overcome this disease which for many was beyond reach. Millions suffer everyday due to lack of medical care. He left his business and opened a primary health centre at Mayapur in Nadia District of West Bengal in the year 2007, the rationale being the unavailability of simple basic healthcare facilities to the rural poor that leads them to a poverty, exploitation and apathy. This initiative received phenomenal response and 8000 patients came for treatment in the very first month. Seeing the success of such a small scale initiative, many acquaintances of Arun joined hands and a public trust was formed.
Please describe the goal of your initiative; outline what you are trying to achieve
To provide quality health care services at affordable costs to the rural poor. By opening our centres in different districts of West Bengal, we relieve the villagers from the clutches of the local quacks who charge huge fees. The location of the centres being easily communicable saves time and money of the villagers. Predominance of gender biasness is still a big problem in rural India and the female patients face the same as they are restricted from travelling far for treatment. But such problems are dealt with the opening of the centres at communicable locations which motivate them to flock the centres in hordes to get treated. Our constant endeavour is to increase the arrayed services offered presently by adding more departments like physiotherapy, ENT treatment and school health camps
What has been the impact of your solution to date?
We have over the last three years treated more than 400000 satisfied patients in all our centres acroos the state of West Bengal. Over 3000 cataract operations were performed to give new vision to the elderly poor rural people. More than 100 children were treated for cleft lip/palate and have been saved from the stigma associated with it. 150 wheel chairs have been distributed to the disabled after proper verification of their disability. Moreover the numbers of patients are increasing every day which is proof enough of their satisfaction in the service rendered by us in all our centres. Their satisfaction is heightened by the fact that their hard earned money is saved as well as the inconvenience of long distance travel with illness and extra time consumed. The special factor is the eye and the dental department in our centres which is very important to them as they would avoid problems in these areas as the treatment is expensive and the services non existent in rural areas.
What is your projected impact over the next five years?
We want to
•Open 25 more centres & to consolidate our strength and minimize our weaknesses. Starting from eastern Indian states of Bihar, Odissa, Jharkhand, Sikkim, Assam and others our initiative would be to spread across the breadth of the country.
•Increase the utilization of resource by opening more medical departments namely physiotherapy, ENT besides arranging regular health camps in schools. Our aim is to serve more than 100000 patients per month in each centre. We have been offered from the Bangladesh Consulate to provide services which is right now under discussion in RHCF platform. We want to reach out to needy people with our services not only in India but beyond
UNICEF visited our centre & spoke highly of our work and wil provide us with ideas & innovation for development
Winning entries present a strong plan for how they will achieve and track growth. Identify your six-month milestone for growing your impact
open three centres. A centre is ready to start operation in the month of February.
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your six-month milestone
Task 1
Advertise in the local newspapers for landlords to identify new places for our future centres in various locations
Task 2
visit the site and access the place in terms of communication as well as availability of electricity and water
Task 3
Renovation of the building in terms of smooth functioning, installation of equipments and recruitment of qualified doctors
Now think bigger! Identify your 12-month impact milestone
We would like to serve 40,000 people per month in all our twelve centres and open four more centres in the next six months
Identify three major tasks you will have to complete to reach your 12-month milestone
Task 1
Identify companies with corporate social responsibility in healthcare and to approach them for funds for further expansion
Task 2
Recruitment of qualified medical staff for scaling up of our operations so that the functioning of organization are sustainable
Task 3
Locate and survey appropriate place to open more centres specially in the areas where it is most required for the rural poor
Sustainability
Tell us about your partnerships
We act as facilitators for a few organizations where our common goals are solved mutually and operationally. Our organization has facilitated more than 3000 cataract operations for free to the elderly through the Rotary Eye Hospital. Post-surgery they are treated at our centres and given dark glasses for further the protection of their eyes. More than 100 Cleft lip/palate surgeries for children have been conducted through Smile Train Foundation at CMRI, Kolkata and they are living a stigma free life. We have distributed wheel chair to the needy at our centres as well as in various events.
Are you currently targeting other specific populations, locations, or markets for your innovation? If so, where and why?
We have been offered from the Bangladesh Consulate in Kolkata to provide services which is right now under discussion. The healthcare scenario there is similar to that in India and the availability of qualified medical professionals is worse. Facts show that many affluent patients from Bangladesh come to India for their medical treatment, a term which is widely known as Medical Tourism. Even some of our centres bordering Bangladesh see the influx of patients sneaking in from across the border for their treatment. We are also eyeing Nepal in the future as the situation is similar.
What type of operating environment and internal organizational factors make your innovation successful?
The environmental factor is choosing the right location for setting up a centre. Factors like accessibility of the centres from adjacent and far of places, water and electricity are the three main criteria and this according to the environmental perspective adds to the success of our work. Free medicines to all the patients for 1 week at a nominal amount of rs 30, free diagnosis tests, cataract and lip/palate operations, availability of needy patients with wheel chairs, blankets, artificial limbs and spectacles at a very subsidized rate are some of the facilities we provide that increase the demand of getting medically treated at our centres. Residential facilities provided to the doctors makes the access to round the clock treatment which is unique and helpful to patients.
Please elaborate on any needs or offers you have mentioned above and/or suggest categories of support that aren't specified within the list
Qualified human resources in the field of medicines & treatment who are willing to serve in remote villages is the need of the hour. a consciousness to serve the needy is a prerequisite for working in this sector. Getting such individuals is difficult but not impossible, as we have managed our centres smoothly so far. But this may pose as a major hindrance in the expansion of our services
 | 15 weeks agoAnant Nevatia updated this Competition Entry. |
| 15 weeks agoAnant Nevatia updated this Competition Entry. |
| 15 weeks agoAnant Nevatia submitted this idea. |
