Healthcare is the right of every individual but 60% of the Indian population is deprived of basic medicines and medical facilities. To control the spread of diseases and reduce the growing rates of mortality due to lack of adequate health facilities, special attention needs to be given to the health care in rural areas. The key challenges in the healthcare sector are low quality of care, poor accountability, lack of awareness about nutrition & hygiene and limited access to facilities.
Integral Institute of Medical Sciences & Research took a step forward to contribute a little to the healthcare system in rural areas. To do our little part, a rural medical camp was held from 20th Dec, 2022 to 2 Jan, 2023. It was organized by the Department of Paediatrics. There was a team of 6 people. The camp was conducted to provide free general check-up, growth & development of children and to assess the nutritional and immunization status of the children. The camp started at 8am and continued till 4pm. The setup was planned to maximize efficiency and distribute the tasks evenly amongst the team. The healthcare camp was conducted under the guidance of Executive director Mr. Syed M. Fauzan Akhtar.
It was done with the help of Dr. Saksham Srivastav (HOD) and Dr. Hina Tabassum (SR) who was the coordinator. All the children within that area were enrolled. After that, the height and weight of the children was taken by the interns along with the immunization status. Examination of the children was done by the SR. The Paediatrician heard their complaints, prescribed them medicines and counselled the attendants accordingly. Some of the Medicines were distributed for free. We also tried to emphasize on health education. Lack of awareness is the main problem along with affordability. We tried to educate the people about health.
It included educating them to work towards building an environment of well-being by proper sanitary habits and explain how they can bring a difference at community level by individual contributions. To educate adolescent females on menstrual hygiene as a vital aspect of one’s health. Explaining to them briefly what happens during menstruation to remove the taboo, encouraging mothers to provide good nutrition to their kids and do proper exercise. A total of 50 attendants appeared for the check-up.
