THE THREAD OF CONNECTIVITY

How often do we postponed a visit to the doctor because it is too much of a hassle to commute to the hospital/clinic? How often do we ignore those small signs and symptoms because we do not have the time to address them?

We often talk about affordable and accessible healthcare, and we see that though the question of affordability has been more or less been answered, the question of accessibility remains unanswered. Today, there has been a rise in the number of hospitals and healthcare centres across the country, however, we do not have a count of the number of people who have been able to access it. Census 2011 has revealed that over 21 million people in India as suffering from one or the other kind of disability. This is equivalent to 2.1% of the population and these are the people that suffer the most due to inaccessibility. Most often this part of the population is dependent on other members of their family or the community to visit the doctor and it’s been seen that either they have no one to take them there or are hesitant to ask for help.

So in such a situation how do we make sure that they receive the care they deserve

Hence, we decided to take health care screening services to them by developing the BareFoot nurse project that caters to the vulnerable group. Our nurses make regular visits to customers who are otherwise unable to travel a distance and keep a check on parameters such as blood pressure, blood sugar, hemoglobin, chronic kidney disease etc. It is one way to prevent them from being a victim to non-communicable diseases. We believe everyone deserves the right to quality healthcare and thus our nurses are the threads that aim weave the blanket of connectivity across the country.

                                                                                                       
                                                                                                                 - Achala Pai