Residents of tribal settlements in Amboori will no longer be required to travel long distances avail themselves of primary health-care facilities. Mobile hospitals which provide services of doctors and nurses will reach the tribal settlements.
An initiative of the Scheduled Tribes Development Department and the Kerala Medical Services Corporation, the ‘mobile medical clinic’ facility has commenced operation in the region.
Around 500 tribal families of 12 settlements in Amboori grama panchayat depend on the Amboori primary health centre for treatment. Residents of the Kombayya Kani settlement used to take around two hours on foot and by country boat to reach the hospital. The mobile clinic is the result of efforts to provide an alternative.
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Medicines too
A doctor, a nurse and a lab technician will be part of the mobile clinic. Besides, essential medicines will also be provided through the facility. It also has a laboratory that will enable patients, including diabetics, to get their blood examined.
The clinic will reach each settlement twice a month.
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C.K. Hareendran, MLA, said that all possible efforts were being taken to ensure that the mobile clinic could reach its destinations. ASHA workers and field junior public health nurses (JPHN) would be entrusted with informing the clinic’s schedule to the residents in advance.
Amboori primary health centre medical officer in-charge Navajeevan said that the facility would become a boon for several people who usually showed reluctance in approaching health institutions.