Monthly Newsletter- January 2015
Healthcare Project in Korail Slum
Marking the beginning of the Gregorian Year, 2015, Good Heal Trust is happy to have made it this far, continuing its services at the Korail Slum.
This month, GHT has given service to a total of 415 patients, including regular clinic patients, advanced consultancy services, follow-ups, referral cases and GHT Health camp patients. For Telemedicine Services, consultancy through Skype was provided to 21 patients. The doctors who provided their services for the telemedicine service were three in number, Dr. Apurbo Kumer Saha (from the Medicine Department)- 13 patients and Dr. Aynul Kabir (from the Medicine Department)- 8 patients.
The GHT team arranges referrals for patients every month in order to give access to the patients to get the medical treatment they require. This month 12 patients were referred to BRAC and Bangladesh Institute for Health Sciences (BIHS).
For education purposes and objectives of seeing overall improvement in hygiene and health matters, Good Heal Trust presents health awareness sessions twice a week on general health to patients at the Slum. These sessions continue to be much needed for many of the families as these are the only sessions they have access to when it comes to medical advice. Advice is given pertaining to personal hygiene, family planning, common diseases amongst women, common diseases present in households and many other issues are discussed.
Focus Group Discussions (FDGs) were held with 605 people within the slum. Senior nurses along with the help of team members help to conduct the sessions. Participants are encouraged to ask questions and requested to pass on the advice received to others.
There were two health camps held, one of the 11th of January and another on the 28th of January. A total of 87 patients were given health services. There were four doctors who provided their services at the camps this month. They were Dr. Apurbo Kumer Saha (from the Medicine Department), Dr. Farhana Khatun (Senior Medical Officer, Gynecologist), BIHS, Dr. Aynul Kabir (from the Medicine Department) and Dr.Farhana Rahat MBBS, FCPS (Pediatric).
The health camps are the only time doctors are present and so many patients are asked to come in during the camps. 65 of the 87 patients registered as newly registered patients. 22 of them were registered from before. Good Heal Trust provides a health card to each new person. A mere Tk50 is charged as the card registration fee. Each card holder patient is also given a registration number. With this card patients are able to avail the health care services that the trust has to offer.
As always, special healthcare screening was given for the following: breast -oral -cervical cancer screening, blood sugar monitoring, health education and diet counseling, pregnancy tests were given for both adults and adolescents and special heath education sessions were held at the slum clinics.
We look forward to seeing how the services at Korail Clinic go this year. Even though the country is going through great political instability, we are hoping for the best.
GHT Okaidi Health Clinic
The new health program for Grameen Shikka’s ten schools in Mirpur, sponsored by and in collaboration with Okaidi has been on-going and gaining momentum in the last month.
The team has been successful in doing awareness sessions pertaining to the importance of brushing one’s teeth, maintaining personal hygiene and eating a proper food diet. In addition to this, basic medical care was provided to the students of three schools this month. The schools in which health checkups were done for the students are: Muslim Camp, MCC Camp and Consun Camp.
The team also made 600 health cards for all of the students. These will be distributed to the parents and students shortly.
The GHT OKAIDI Clinic Team attended their monthly meeting with Grameen Shikkha School employees on 10th January, 2015. The team shared its objectives and goals for the schools, present health activities and future plans. On 11th January, 2015, a meeting was held with the teachers. The team requested all the teachers to pay close attention to the awareness programs and keep an eye on all of the students, reporting to the clinical team if any medical problems are noted among the students.
A sign board representing the GHT OKAIDI Clinic was made for the clinic door in addition to other small improvements made to bring the clinic more to life.
The team is continuing to work with Bangladesh Institute of Health Science (BIHS) to get essential medical care for the children. It is also in the process to launch Skype sessions (telemedicine services) for the children just as is done at Korail Slum for adults. This is an objective set for the upcoming months. We look forward to continue bringing this project to greater heights this year.
If interested in working with us or if you simply want to find out more information about what we endeavor to bring to the over-all healthcare system, current/future projects and much more, please visit us at: www.goodhealtrust.org