Odisha plans mobile medicare units for elderly population

It will be run by a doctor, one nurse and 3 more staff; cover 400 people in a month
Representational Image
Representational Image

BHUBANESWAR:  Every district in the State will have one physiotherapy clinic and a mobile medicare unit for senior citizens soon. The facilities will extend medical care to people above 60 years living in rural, isolated and backward areas.

The Odisha government has decided to set up these health facilities in all 30 districts under the State Action Plan for Welfare of Senior Citizens (SAPSrC) to be run by the Social Security and Empowerment of Persons with Disabilities (SSEPD) department.

The physiotherapy clinic project aims at enabling senior citizens to assume an active role in maintaining and improving their own health and encourage others to do the same. The mobile medicare unit will attend the elderly persons living in areas where proper healthcare facilities are not yet available.
The agencies having a credible track record of running projects for the welfare of senior citizens will be roped in to manage the physiotherapy clinic for a minimum of 50 persons per month.

Along with the allopathic treatment, senior citizens can avail ayurvedic or homeopathic medical care through the mobile medicare units, which will cover a minimum 400 people per month. Each mobile unit will make at least 10 trips per month to the assigned areas. A senior official of SSEPD department said the project will be a combined effort of the government, social organisations, Panchayati Raj Institutions, local bodies and the community at large. Recognised charitable hospitals or nursing homes/medical institutions will run the clinics.

While the mobile medicare unit will have one doctor and a nurse besides one driver, an organiser and a multi-tasking staff for distribution of medicines and getting pathological tests done, the physiotherapy clinic will have a physiotherapist, technician and multi-tasking staff. 

This apart, a pool of trained geriatric caregivers will be created to provide bedside assistance to the needy elderly. A State-level centre will be set up for the purpose to impart training to geriatric caregivers and conduct 24 programmes per year with the help of agencies working in the field of old age care. 

The State government has selected agencies to run the clinics and mobile units in 14 districts - Balangir, Boudh, Deogarh, Dhenkanal, Jagatsinghpur, Jharsuguda, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Malkangiri, Mayurbhanj, Nabarangpur, Nayagarh, Sambalpur and Sonepur.

HEALTHCARE HELP

2 health facilities - physiotherapy clinic and a mobile medicare unit  - to come up in each dist

Mobile units to provide allopathic, ayurvedic/homepathy treatment

Physiotherapy clinic to cater to minimum 50 persons a month

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