Fortis Healthcare foundation
GROUP LEVEL PROGRAMS FOR THE YEAR
HIV/AIDS – Workplace intervention
HIV/AIDS is a growing pandemic in most of the developing world today. Moreover, the disease is rising alarmingly in our country. The lack of awareness and understanding of the disease results in fear and negative attitudes among people causing stigmatization, discrimination and mismanagement of HIV positive people and people living with AIDS.
The role of the private sector is critical if the battle against AIDS is to be effective and sustainable. Fortis Healthcare plans to join the battle against HIV/AIDs in two ways
- By creating awareness and sensitizing each Fortisian on practicing safe behaviour
- Thereafter, awareness, care and support to the larger community.
With this objective we have partnered with CII who have had extensive experience on the subject, who in turn have collaborated with The Modicare Foundation to impart training on HIV/AIDS. The objective of the project is to create a resource pool within our system in the form of Peer Educators (PE) who will work towards increasing awareness about HIV/AIDS to our entire workforce.
In this manner, at the end of the year, we hope that we have a workforce that is empowered, sensitized and aware of HIV/AIDs in every respect, as they would become key contributors to spreading awareness of this dreaded pandemic to the larger community.
The Chiranjeevi Scheme
Affordable healthcare for the masses has emerged as an urgent need of the nation today. The biggest obstacle for the spread of Health Insurance is the inability of people to pay a high premium upfront. This has resulted in the skewed distribution of health insurance and services to those who otherwise have the ability to pay for the cost of medical treatment they undergo.
In order to overcome this paradox, the need of the hour is to find new and innovative solutions that ensure that all segments of society are benefited by quality and affordable healthcare. Given the country’s diversity, one way to address the same is to have a Micro Health Insurance Scheme, which has a very low premium.
In our quest to find ways of providing quality healthcare to all in the long run, the Fortis Healthcare Charitable Trust has launched a new initiative to focus on affordable healthcare. Hence, along the lines of Yeshasvini (Co-operative Farmers Health Care Scheme benefiting the Co-operative farmers of Karnataka), we have developed the healthcare scheme - Chiranjeevi.
Chiranjeevi is the first-of-its-kind low-cost healthcare product that is specifically designed to address the preventive and curative medical needs of the school children of our country. The healthcare services provided would be delivered through a network of hospitals backed by an insurance company. The scheme offers a complete health assurance plan for a monthly subscription of just Rs. 17/-. Further, it also includes faculty, support staff and their family members for Rs. 300/- per year. A part of the money collected from the schools is used in taking an insurance cover. The remaining part forms a corpus, which is used as a group floater for various other activities designed to fall within the purview of Chiranjeevi. More info...
Specialized consultation service to Remote India using Telemedicine as an enabler
As a quality Healthcare provider and an emerging leader in the Industry, at Fortis Healthcare, we are using Telemedicine as a medium to reach out to rural India to provide them specialized healthcare. We have one of the best faculties in the country, as also one of the pioneers in Telemedicine in India, Dr Alok Roy, to address the needs for super speciality medical care namely Paediatric Cardiac Surgery, Joint Replacements, Renal Transplant and Complicated Cardiac Surgery and Spinal Surgery through this medium.
Fortis Hospitals are among few hospitals in the country that have a state-of-the-art Telemedicine studio. People from around the country use the services of our super specialists over the Telemedicine Network. Fortis Healthcare has the privilege of setting up the first Telemedicine linked ICU in the Northern part of the country in the city of Panipat. The patients get round-the-clock support from our doctors. Other Telemedicine centres are Shahjehanpur, UP, Moradabad and Assam. In addition to our country, we also aim to provide this form of care to our neighbouring countries - Bangladesh, Nepal and Pakistan.
Skill enhancement for Rural Healthcare Providers (RHP)
No one in urban or rural India is a stranger to the word “quack.” It is alarming to know that at least these unqualified medical practitioners service 70 percent of the India’s healthcare needs.
At Fortis Healthcare we have created various modules to impart training to these unqualified and untrained medical practitioners or rural healthcare providers. These modules have facts on good practices and on what not to do. We consider the regional languages and specificities and then partner with local hospitals creating value down the chain for healthcare deliverers.
The skill enhancement for RHP’s is imparted by an in house team of doctors in either a face-to-face interaction or using video conferencing and telemedicine so that it benefits a larger part of the country.
Fortis Healthcare epilepsy Control Programme (FECP)
Epilepsy is one of the most common disorders of the brain. Based on preliminary estimates one out of every 100-200 persons suffers from epilepsy in India. Furthermore, there are large myths surrounding epilepsy resulting in social stigma. These baseless apprehensions and misconceptions stem from widespread ignorance.
As an endeavour to provide specialized medical treatment to epilepsy patients, Fortis Healthcare Foundation has set up the Fortis Healthcare advanced Centre for Epilepsy (FACE) falling within the purview of the Neurosciences Department. The treatment comprises a 2-day programme of consultation and counselling backed by sophisticated tests like EEG, Video EEG and an MRI scan to identify the type of Epilepsy. Should the need arise FACE is also equipped to handle a wide range of surgeries like Temporal Lobotomy, Cortical Excision and Lesionectomy
In order to dispel fears and help epilepsy patients and their families overcome the social stigma and lead a productive life, counselling forms and important component of this programme. So far 4 camps have been held benefiting over 600 people.
Disaster Management
The Indian subcontinent is highly prone to recurrent natural and man-made disasters such as floods, fire, drought, epidemics, cyclones and earthquakes. These disasters affect more than 25 million people every year. Some of the states extremely vulnerable to natural hazards are Gujarat, Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Assam, Meghalaya and Sikkim.
Of these Delhi, Uttar Pradesh and Uttaranchal fall within the realm of a large Fortis Healthcare presence. We must be in a state of preparedness to actively assist in the aftermath of such disasters.
Therefore, we have adopted a phase wise approach to the disaster management program within the organization. The first phase includes sensitization and creating ability within the organization through training. Application of competency created in the first phase would form a part of the second phase. Going forward, we also aim at creating alliances with Government bodies and the private sector in the development and promotion of the disaster management programs.
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