A programme to deliver ‘world-class’ healthcare to remote villages in India has been set up by Satyam Computer Services, a global consulting and information technology company.
Satyam, the Indian government, and the state of Andhra Pradesh have formed a public-private partnership to send healthcare vans, or mobile health units, into poor villages, where many of the people have never been seen by medical professionals before.
The programme, known as 104 Mobile, will bebased around information technology and will offer a wide range of health services to villagers who are more than three kilometres from medical services. The primary aim will be preventive, but the service will include treatment of existing conditions and is expected to make a big difference in maternal and infant health. Female health volunteers will play a particularly important part in overcoming the cultural sensitivities that stop some women from seeking treatment.
The mobile health units will be state-of-the-art vehicles equipped to carry drugs and store blood and urine samples for testing. They will be manned by paramedics, pharmacists and lab technicians as well as doctors.
Much of the expertise will be backed by the Byrraju Foundation and the Emergency Medical Research Institute, two organizations founded by B. Ramalinga Raju, Satyam’s founder and chairman.
Raju said: ‘Mobile 104 will enhance the lives of rural Indians dramatically. Too many villagers are troubled by ailments that are entirely preventable or easily cured in this day and age. They simply need access to basic healthcare, which this programme provides’. He said the initiative ‘will leverage our expertise with other rural healthcare programs and public-private partnerships to ensure that its expansion is rapid and seamless’.
The research institute has already played a part in creating Call 108, an emergency health telephone number. The programmes established by the institute and Byrraju, which began in Andhra Pradesh, are being replicated throughout India.