Ashraya - Patient Facilitation Center (PFC)

Malkangiri is situated in the remostest corner of the state.  For tertiary health care services the people depend mostly on Visakhapatnam which is nearer.  The state government has also tagged to institutes i.e Seven Hills Hospital, Care & Appollo Hospital to the state under OSTF. But poor tribal patient suffered a lot for accommodation of attendants & getting access to the Health facility due to linguistic barrier, low acquaintance with the system etc. Hence a Facilitation centre with accommodation for attendants was truly needed to solve the problem. It was decided to start the project immediately under state fund and priority was fixed for the poor tribal of Malkangiri.

Poor patients in need of tertiary healthcare services like Accident, Trauma care, Cancer management, Cardiac surgery, Neurosurgery, Nephrology etc. who are referred from DDH, Malkangiri to Visakhpatnam are being received at PFC, Visakhpatnam where the patient and two of his attendants are provided with free lodging, boarding. One Facilitator or Ashraya manager is placed at PFC, Visakhpatnam who is well conversant with multiple languages viz. Odiya, Koya, Bengali and Telugu. He liaisons between the hospital authorities and the patient’s family for regular follow up. 

Background

Malkangiri is situated in the remotest corner of the state. For tertiary health care services the people depend mostly on Visakhapatnam which is nearer. The state government has also tagged to institutes i.e Seven Hills Hospital, Care & Appollo Hospital to the state under OSTF. But poor tribal patient suffered a lot for accommodation of attendants & getting access to the Health facility due to linguistic barrier, low acquaintance with the system etc. Hence a Facilitation centre with accommodation for attendants was truly needed to solve the problem. It was decided to start the project immediately under state fund and priority was fixed for the poor tribal of Malkangiri.

Purpose

Poor patients in need of tertiary healthcare services like Accident, Trauma care, Cancer management, Cardiac surgery, Neurosurgery, Nephrology etc. who are referred from DDH, Malkangiri to Visakhpatnam are being received at PFC, Visakhpatnam where the patient and two of his attendants are provided with free lodging, boarding. One Facilitator or Ashraya manager is placed at PFC, Visakhpatnam who is well conversant with multiple languages viz. Odiya, Koya, Bengali and Telugu. He liaisons between the hospital authorities and the patient’s family for regular follow up. 

Strategies

• One Manager has been appointed for maintenance of Ashraya. Ashraya Manager receives the patients at Visakhapatnam and liaison between the hospital authorities and the patient’s families for regular follow up. He accompanies the patient’s attendants to Ashraya building & ensures provision of all the facilities to the attendants during their stay.
• After successful treatment, Ashraya manager consults the concerned doctors and communicate important information about care to be taken for the patient post treatment in a local language understandable by the attendants. Ashraya Manager will take care of discharge formalities at the referred hospital.

Services Provided At PFC

• Receive the patients from Malkangiri (either by ambulance or by bus/train).
• Escort the patients to the referred hospital and ensure quality services are provided.
• Food & accommodation facilities to the patients & attendants.
• Safely send them back to the district.
• Coordinate with the DHH, constantly share information about flow of patients and update DHH about the status of the patients.

Achievement

71 patients have already been referred to Hospitals at Visakhapatnam as on 30.06.2018 and nearly 140 attendants and the patients have been benefitted in availing the facilities at Ashraya. They were quite happy with facilities provided by the Government of Odisha under Chief Minister’s Relief Fund at Ashraya, Visakhapatnam.

Highlight & Positive Features

Source : India Knowledge Hub