Living in a remote area? Doctor-on-wheels comes to your rescue

Will organise counselling sessions for children, help them deal with emotional issues

To provide critical on-site medical services to marginalised communities in Delhi and the National Capital Region (NCR), PwC India Foundation, the philanthropic arm of PwC India along with its partner Bal Umang Drishya Sansthan (BUDS), launched its mobile healthcare van project recently.

This 'doctor-on-wheels' initiative aims at providing prompt medical treatment to people, who have limited access to it in areas such as Mori Gate, Sarai Kale Khan, Nizamuddin, Phool Mandi, Rajendra Market located in old Delhi and Ghasera village of Mewat district in Haryana.

The initiative will also organise counselling sessions for children in these areas and help them deal with behavioural and emotional issues. Special healthcare workshops will also be conducted around prevention of communicable diseases.

Present at the event as chief guest was Dr Ajay Khera, deputy commissioner (Child Health and Immunization), Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

On the occasion of the start of this initiative, PwC India Foundation vice chairman Jaivir Singh said, "Every citizen of India deserves to live a life of no-compromise," said Jaivir Singh, Vice Chairman, , adding, "We aim to fill a critical gap by taking healthcare to the doorstep of those who need it the most. To monitor the programme and its success, each patient's electronic health files will be preserved which will also facilitate in patient follow-up."

Bal Umang Drishya Sanstha (BUDS) managing trustee Dr Rajeev Seth said, "Through this initiative, we aim to strengthen our outreach and cover more than 25,000 children and community members each year - a dream that's now possible due to the support of the PwC India Foundation and our patrons, the Government of India and Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS)."

The fully equipped mobile medical van will visit each area thrice a week and will be staffed with a doctor, who will address malnutrition, anemia, poor hygiene, multiple gastrointestinal and respiratory tract infections, sexual and reproductive health, non-communicable diseases, substance misuse and injuries and also provide psycho-social support to children dealing with emotional issues, stress, abuse and violence (including gender-based violence).

Providing healthcare right from the pre-natal stage up to the adolescence stage is vital in order to ensure healthy growth and quality life of children. From the providers' perspective, service delivery in slums is an enormous challenge given the large and sometimes mobile population.