SOS Medical Centres in India

In India there are currently five Medical Centres for children and the local community, in Bhuj, Chennai, Anangpur, Kajuri Kalan and Bhimtal.  SOS Medical Centres provide medical treatment and services for the local community.  Below is some information about some of the Medical Centres that SOS Children runs in India:

SOS Medical Centres around India: In-Depth

Bhimtal

Description of SOS Medical Centre:

At the SOS Medical Centre, people from the local community receive basic medical treatment and counselling. The centre, which was opened in 1991, has three rooms for medical treatment and two beds for patients who need to stay on for treatment.

Work and Achievements:

The Medical Centre is attached to the SOS School. The Medical Centre provides medical care to Children from the SOS Village and Boarders of the school and staff residing in the campus. People of the community are also supported by the Medical Centre. The centre had an Outpatient Department attendance of 2,263 students of the School and 1312 children from the Children’s Village, the total OPD attendance being 3,575 during the year. Apart from this, 784 adult patients also attended the OPD. The Centre has good equipment including an X-ray machine and laboratory. The centre has qualified staff to take care of the beneficiaries.

Chennai

Description of SOS Medical Centre:

he SOS Medical Centre, Chennai helps orphaned and vulnerable children and their families in the local community. It runs "rural medical camps" for the local communities, a population of more than 30,000. The SOS Medical Centre sees about 2,000 patients every month. The focus is on prevention and on health education, including family planning and pre- and post-natal care.

Work and Achievements:

The SOS Medical Centre, with the help of two doctors (a general physician and Gynecologist) and a team of medical and paramedical staff, is giving medical care to our children and mothers. The Centre conducted health check-ups for children and mothers: Children’s height (once every 6 months), weight (every month) and haemoglobin count (once every 6 months). All children below six years of age were also administered Polio drops under ‘Pulse Polio’ program organized by the provincial administration. A comprehensive ‘master health check up’ was done to all mothers and co-workers. The medical centre also provides medical support to people from our neighborhood and also for the people in five villages (Chitalapakkam, Madampakkam, Nuthencherry, Adhinagar and Ramakrishnapuram) where mobile clinics (medical camp) are organized during Monday to Friday. This has been functional since 1982. Periodical evaluation is also carried out to improve the medical services.

Number of patients who came for treatment to the Outpatient Department in the SOS Medical Centre in the Village during the period January –September 2009 was 4,458 out of which 2,486 were children.

Anangpur

Description of SOS Medical Centre:

The SOS Medical centre has been functioning since April 1994. It was dedicated to the community with the main objective of safe motherhood and childhood.  The areas which are covered by this project are Anangpur, Mewla Maharajpur, Surajkund, Gurukul and Dayalnagar and SOS Greenfields.

Work and Achievements:

Anangpur Medical Centre was started to provide health services to the community in Anangpur and nearby villages. The number of patients has come down as the centre has only visiting doctors now.

Anangpur Medical Centre consists of a ward with 9 beds, one labour room, one operation theatre, one pharmacy, first aid room, pathology lab, X-ray room, dental aid and two consultation rooms for doctors.

The centre has a medical doctor who visits thrice in a week for 2 hours. A dentist visits once in a week for 2 hours. On an average 15-20 patients turn up for OPD during the day of visit of doctors. Paramedical staff consists of one staff nurse, one lab technician, a medical assistant and one driver. Patients pay very nominal charges for registration at the OPD as well for pathological tests.

Bhuj

Description of SOS Medical Centre:

An SOS Medical Centre is run across the Children’s Village campus with the OPD strength of 200 children during the year.

Work and achievements:

Patients come from the very poor socio–economic strata of society and are benefiting from the service every month. We have a qualified and experienced Medical Officer in this centre who joined us in the middle of this year, replacing the two Ayurvedic doctors who left us in July. He is assisted with two assistants who prepare case papers, provide prescribed medicines, dress wounds and issue records. General Medicines are provided to the economically poor patients at nominal cost. Medical camps are conducted twice a week in the rural areas and at places where beneficiaries of Family Strengthening Program are living. SOS Children’s Village families too make use of the Medical Centre for general health check-ups, checking their height & weight periodically.

Kajuri Kalan

Description of SOS Medical Centre:

Since most of the children living at SOS Children's Village Khajuri Kalan are in need of long-term medical care, SOS Children's Villages has set up an SOS Medical Centre to provide this kind of care. This centre provides special education, hydrotherapy, physiotherapy and speech therapy. There is also an early intervention centre. Specialised day-care is available for 150 to 200 children who are not residents of the SOS Children's Village. These children can also benefit from the services of the therapy and skill development centres.