Health care initiative for tribal villagers pays off

Now the villagers rely on 108 ambulances for taking pregnant women to hospitals

The Tamil Nadu Health Systems Project’s (TNHSP) focus on increasing access to health care services for tribal villages in Vellore district has started to pay off. More tribal villagers have slowly begun to seek health services, something that was low earlier due to factors such as inaccessibility and native practices.

Officials said that tribal people constitute around 1.2 per cent of Vellore’s population. Javadhu Hills, Anaicut, Odugathur, Yelagiri, Pudurnadu, Naickeneri and Jamanamarathur are the tribal pockets in the district.

“The health-seeking behaviour was earlier low among the tribal people. Factors such as inaccessible areas and native practices were at play. Now, it is changing slowly with tribal people coming out to seek healthcare services including lab tests and check-ups,” A. Kennedy, district project coordinator, TNHSP, Vellore said.

Under the tribal health programme, TNHSP has roped in two NGOs for the tribal outreach programmes — CMC’s Community Health and Development for Vellore Health Unit Division (HUD) and SRM University for Tirupattur HUD. Two four-wheel drive vehicles with medical and paramedical personnel travel to a particular tribal village on a fixed day to provide health services.

“The team consists of a doctor, a nurse and a lab technician. The vehicle is provided with laboratory facilities too. They check the villagers, particularly pregnant women. They are screened for seasonal diseases and respiratory diseases and given drugs, if required,” Dr. Kennedy added. Pregnant women are also checked for anaemia and high risk cases are identified earlier.

At the hospital-level, tribal health counselling services have been put in place. Educated members of the tribal community have been trained and posted at the government hospitals at Tirupattur, Vaniyambadi and Ambur, he pointed out.

“These counsellors serve as the much-needed link to the tribal people. They help the villagers coming to the GHs from getting the out patient slips to consulting doctors and getting laboratory investigations done,” he added.

Currently, a pilot study is under way to look at the prevalence of thalassaemia among tribal persons.

One way to ascertain the improving health seeking behaviour among the tribal persons is a look at the utilisation of 108 ambulance services. For instance, the two ambulances — a basic life support ambulance and a four-wheel drive — stationed at Pudurnadu has handled 80 cases in December 2014 alone.

Officials said that of this, 45 were pregnancy cases, with the others being cardiac ailments, epilepsy, fever, respiratory difficulty, abdomen pain and fever. “The villagers rely 100 per cent on 108 ambulances for taking pregnant women to the primary health centre or GH for deliveries,” an official said.

Experts said it would be beneficial if facilities such as quarters are established in tribal areas so that the doctors can stay full time to cater to the health needs of the villagers.