THESE PROJECTS ARE

• Moving Closer to the community:
  
  • The Anand Health Center
    
  • The Petlad Municipal Hospital
    
  • The Ardi Project
    
  • The JV Gokal Fellowship Programme
    
    
• Examples of models to address Public Health issues:
  
  • Cancer Awareness, Education and Early Detection Project
    
  • Tobacco Cessation Clinic
    
  • HIV/AIDS Project
    
  • Polio Project

To Promote research objectives:

• The Supplementary Nutrition Project for Pregnant and Lactating Women
  
• State of Health Report for Anand and Kheda districts

Projects to provide succor to the suffering:

• The Earthquake Project
  
• The riot relief Project

 
Through its new Health Centre at the Mayank Jayant Foundation Bhawan, the Shree Krishna Hospital offers affordable medical care for Anand's people.

Consultants in medicine, surgery, Orthopedics and Paediatrics staff the Center's evening clinics. During the day a Medical Officer, supported by a laboratory, x-ray and pharmacy, provides routine care. The Center's services are provided at a cost less than those charged by Anand's other Hospitals.

 
Petlad, a town of 50,000 about 20 kilometers from Karamsad, operated a small municipal Hospital. As the facilities were largely unused because the Burrough was unable to retain doctors, the Mandal was invited to run the outpatient services. To extend better health care to the people of Petlad, the Mandal provided a Medical Officer, a nurse, and a pharmacist-cum-clerk to manage the Hospital.

In the three years since the Mandal became involved, the Petlad Municipal Hospital's reputation for affordable quality medical care has steadily improved. In order to further build its reputation, the Mandal will soon initiate Tribhuvandas Foundation activities there.

 
The 5,000 people of Ardi live about 8 kilometers from the Shree Krishna Hospital. Agriculture is the major occupation. Some own land and others work as labourers. No licensed medical practitioner lives in the village.

In 1990 the Charutar Arogya Mandal assessed Ardi's health needs and set up a comprehensive health care program to serve this poor community. Operating out of a room in the Panchayat, the Pramukhswami Medical College Department of Community Medicine (P&SM) program conforms to the Medical Council of India's recommendation for a rural health-training center.

The Ardi program is a model for cooperation: the Medical College provides manpower; the Panchayat has made available space and monitors the program; the village dairy cooperative society meets expenses for electricity; a volunteer lady health worker looks after the premises and is part of the health team which includes a Medical College Assistant Professor, a tutor, two medical social workers and rotating interns. Together they provide center as well as home-based preventive, promotive and curative health care to the people of Ardi.

In the morning the Ardi Center is open for outpatient services; during the afternoon the health team visits different parts of the village to collect demographic information, impart health education and to identify patients who need primary and secondary intervention. The Center's pharmacy provides medicine at nominal prices. No treatment charges are made. Patients requiring tertiary care are referred to the Shree Krishna Hospital.

The hope is that the Ardi Center will inspire other villages to collaborate with medical colleges to develop self-sustaining health care facilities.

 
The central purpose of the Charutar Arogya Mandal is to improve medical education and care in the region's villages. Recognizing that qualified doctors do not have sufficient economic incentive to work in the villages, the Mandal has organized a fellowship programme named after one of its most prominent donors. To attract physicians, the Mandal offers a Rs. 2 lakh ($4,200) fellowship to doctors who will set up practice in the small towns of Anand and Kheda Districts. The only other condition is that the doctors visit eight to ten villages each week. The fellowship is placed in a fixed deposit. On successful completion of the programme, the physician receives the deposit plus interest. In addition participants receive a Rs. 50,000 interest-free loan, repayable over five years, for purchase of a two-wheel vehicle, instruments and equipment. A maintenance grant of Rs. 5,000 per month, reduced by Rs. 1,000 per month annually, is also provided.

From 2004, the fellowship programme will be open to all medical graduates in Gujarat. Interested physicians can complete the online application form and send it to the Mandal.