Providing last mile healthcare services to the underprivileged through Mobile 1000 programme

Rural India still suffers from inadequate and inaccessible primary healthcare services. Rural Health centres are critically short of trained medical personnel. According to the data available, 39% PHCs do not have Lab Technicians, 18% PHCs do not have a Pharmacist, 75% graduate doctors live in urban areas, serving only 28% of the population. 31% of the population travels more than 30 KMs seeking healthcare in rural areas.

What is the solution to this problem? Mobile Medical Vans are the best and violable solution to address this problem. Mobile 1000 is an innovative initiative of Wockhardt Foundation with a mission to win the hearts of the rural community through professional healthcare delivery. Mobile 1000 vans are manned by a doctor, pharmacist, lab technician, social protection officer and a driver. They administer free healthcare services. Each Mobile 1000 van caters to 25,000 patients in a year.

The Mobile 1000 program follows program follows the ACDR model of implementation. ‘A’ stands for Awareness programs and distribution of IEC materials. ‘D’ stands for Diagnosis the doctor checks the patients for. ‘C’ stands for cure and nutritional supplements provided to the patients and ‘R’ stands for Referral cases which cannot be treated on a van and are referred to the nearest government or private hospitals.

A Mobile 1000, donated by Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited runs in Sakhroli Gaon (Atgoan). Ms. Lalita Vinay Patil is a teacher in the local government school, where the students are mostly tribal. She say – ‘When this medical van stood first time we got to know about this free medical van. Doctor and the support staff are very nice, they come here every 15 days, due to which our students get regular and free treatment. Most of our students are tribal; they don’t have excess to proper medical facility due to their financial condition plus nearest government clinic is in Sahapur which is very far from here. Since this van comes to their doorstep, it is a real blessing for our village. This medical van is a real boon to them as many old people, mothers with small kids can’t travel that far. This van comes in every 15 days, kids get regular treatment that too free of cost due to which their attendance has also improved in school, as fall ill less often. We make sure our pupil take early treatment for illness such as cold, cough etc so that they don’t fall prey to any major illness. This has helped in improving their attendance in school, due to which their education is not hampered. So benefits of this medical van is not just limited to health, but it has its financial and educational benefit for students of our school. We are really thankful to Wockhardt Foundation for this wonderful service.’

Wockhardt Foundation now operates 227 Mobile Medical Vans in 20 states of India, covering more than 10,000 villages, providing free primary healthcare services to over 5.6 million patients. The program has already touched the lives of more than 26.09 million people by providing free primary healthcare service.