North 24-Parganas rolls out 5 mobile med units under new health initiative

Kolkata: After Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee recently launched a “Duare Swasthya”–like initiative where mobile medical units (MMU), a clinic on wheels with a doctor, nurse, technician and medicines will provide health services at the doorsteps, the North 24-Parganas district administration already made 5 MMU operational out of 9 sanctioned so far.

Since inception, the North 24-Parganas district administration conducted 36 camps till November 27. Out of this, 16 camps were held in Basirhat health district while the remaining 20 camps were held in the rest of the district. The total footfall reached nearly 4,000 till November 27. Basirhat health district

registered around 1,955 footfall and rest of the North 24-Parganas 1,971 footfall.

“In our district primarily 9 MMU has been sanctioned—6 for Assembly constituencies like Gaighata, Ashoknagar, Bhatpara, Jagatdal, Barrackpore and Barasat while 3 for Basirhat health district covering Assembly constituencies like Basirhat Dakshin, Hingalganj and Sandeskhali. Till now in our district 5 MMU is operational, rest will start soon,” a senior official had said.

The Bengal government has taken a unique initiative to bring basic health care to remote villages and hilly areas by launching 110 mobile medical units, Chief Minister Banerjee while inaugurating the scheme on November 11. The vans, inaugurated from Swasthya Bhavan, are part of a fleet of 210 units funded largely through MPs’ development allocations and MPLAD money.

Banerjee had said the 210 mobile clinics were prepared at a cost of about Rs 84 crore from the Rajya Sabha MPs’ development fund. Additional MPLAD allocations of Rs 60 crore and Rs 20 crore pushed overall spending to over Rs 80 crore. Members of Parliament Local Area Development Scheme (MPLADS) funds are an annual grant of Rs 5 crore for each Member of Parliament (MP) to recommend developmental projects in their constituency.

Each van will offer free testing for some 35 conditions and parameters, including haemoglobin, pregnancy screening, malaria, ECG and blood sugar checks. A lab technician, ECG operator and data operator will form part of every team. The state has budgeted roughly Rs 2.5 crore a month to run the services, about Rs 30 crore a year, Banerjee had said.