New Delhi – Ericsson and Smile Foundation expanded the mobile health clinic programme which was launched in 2015 across India to address the primary healthcare needs of daily wage earners living in underprivileged communities.
The programme is now live in Noida, Gurugram, Kolkata, Bengaluru, Chennai and Pune to bring health services at the doorstep of people in need.
As part of the program, each mobile healthcare van is equipped to serve nearly 1500 people every month.
“Access to medical or healthcare and affordability are critical factors that push economically weaker communities into further poverty”, Amitabh Ray, Managing Director, Ericsson India Global Services said.
“The programme has a significant impact among the communities and has so far benefited over 350,000 people”, he further added.
“The partnership with Ericsson comes as a critical initiative to address the gap that exists in terms of healthcare needs and their availability. This free door step service is the effort to reduce out of pocket expenses for the under served communities, thereby helping them allocates their resources to other critical needs like food and education”, Santanu Mishra, Co-Founder and Executive Trustee at Smile Foundation said.
Janak Kaur, a resident of Kalyanpuri , has been getting get free treatment of diabetes from Noida healthcare van which includes regular health-checks, medication and consultation.
“The doctors come right to our doorstep which made our life so much easier”, she said.
Doctors and paramedics often hold awareness sessions on lifestyle diseases, sexually transmitted diseases, importance of nutrition and sanitation among other things as part of the programme.