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 Due to increasing
dependence of rural population on private health services, which often leads
to indebtedness in rural areas, Sir Ganga Ram Hospital with Dept. of Science
& Technology, Ministry Of Health & Family Welfare and Dept. of Space
devised a workable model called “Village Resource Center” (VRC).
To
take healthcare on an IT platform to the rural poor, this was a project/
research experiment under the Science & Society programme of the
Department of Science & Technology.
This
Public Private Partnership model aims at socio-economic development and direct
linkages in the improvement of social infrastructure.
The concept was
unique wherein the private player namely Sir Ganga Ram Hospital was provided
with the space inside the Government Community Health Center to run a medical
kiosk as a part of its Village Resource Centre. The medical kiosk consists of
the following:
  Medical kiosk is a
part of VRC along with Tele-medicine with the aim of quality healthcare, early
diagnosis, treatment and tertiary consultation from Base Station (i.e. at Sir
Ganga Ram Hospital, New Delhi) through Tele-consultation.
The VRC concept has
been evolved by ISRO and implemented through a partnership with Sir Ganga Ram
Hospital by integrating ISRO's capabilities in satellite communications and
satellite based earth observation to disseminate a variety of services
emanating from the space systems  and other Information Technology tools to
address the changing and critical needs of rural communities. The VRC is a
totally interactive VSAT (Very Small Aperture Terminal) based network. To
start with, the network consists of four nodes located at Gohana, Sonepat,
Kaithun and Dasmal. The central node is located at the Sir Ganga Ram Hospital
in Delhi. The network uses one of the extended C-band transponders of the
INSAT-3A satellite. Users located at one node of this network can fully
interact with others located at another node through video and audio links.
Each of the four nodes can be further extended using other technologies like
Wi-Fi, Wireless and Optical Fibre. These extensions may serve as local
clusters around the areas where the VRC is located.
The department of
Science & Technology has provided all the medical equipment for the
medical kiosks, the department of Space has provided the satellite equipment
and given the broadband through VSAT connectivity. They have also given GRAM
SAT, EDU SAT and AGRI SAT for theVillage Resource Centres.
Apart from
Telemedicine, VRCs can also provide a variety of services like tele-education,
online decision support, interactive farmers' advisory services, tele-fishery,
e-governance services, weather services and water management. By providing
tele-education services, the VRCs act as virtual community centric learning
centres. At the same time, VRCs will provide connectivity to specialty
hospitals thus bringing the services of expert doctors closer to the villages.
The manpower and the
medical technologies at the Village Resource Centre is provided by Sir Ganga
Ram Hospital.
The Health &
Family Welfare department of the State Government has provided the space in
the Community Health Centre and the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) has
provided the funds for the interiors along with the furniture.
Thus, Sir Ganga Ram
Hospital VRC project strives to promote a need based single window delivery
system for providing services in the areas of education, health, nutrition,
weather, environment, agriculture and livelihoods to the rural population to
empower them to face challenges.
In the very first
year this model won the Asian Hospital Management Award 2006 for the “Rural
Health Initiative” project in Community Service category for its unique
concept among 53 countries in the Asia region.
Sir Ganga Ram
Hospital’s on-site ‘breast cancer’ screening program is structured to be
time-efficient and convenient and is the only one if it’s kind in India.
Picture Achieve Communication System (PACS), which digitally converts the
image and transmits through broadband to Sir Ganga Ram Hospital, is a
highlight of this project.
The major objectives
of the Mammography project are:
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Connects women
to primary health care.
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Ensure that the
women receives timely, quality follow up services when indicated
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Detect breast
cancer early when they are easily treatable
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Encourage women
to obtain breast cancer screening services as part of their routine health
care.
OBJECTIVES OF
VILLAGE RESOURCE CENTRE
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To reduce
mortality and morbidity rate
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To take
Secondary health care to rural interiors
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To improve
socio-economic status
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To reduce rural
indebtedness
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To bring about
preventive health care through education and awareness.
STUDIES BEING
CONDUCTED AT VRC
Epidemiological
studies are being jointly conducted by the department of Science &
Technology, Govt. of India and Sir Ganga Ram Hospital to understand the
changing disease patterns of the area in relation to their habits and habitat.
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