Monthly Newsletter- November 2014
Healthcare Project in Korail Slum
This month, Good Heal Trust has given service to a total of 355 patients, including regular clinic patients, advanced consultancy services, follow-ups, referral cases and GHT Health camp patients. Similar to previous months, GHT’s Telemedicine Services, consultancy through Skype was provided to 3 patients. The doctor who provided his services for the telemedicine service was Dr. Apurbo Kumer Saha (from the Medicine Department)- 3 patients.
As the make shift clinic does not have enough facilities to accommodate and provide patients with the different treatments they require, the GHT team arranges referrals for patients every month. This month 20 patients were referred to different hospitals such as BSMMU, Sorwardi Hospital, Dhaka Medical College Hospital (BMCH), Gulshan Seba House, TB Hospital, Society for Assistance to Hearing Impaired Children (SAHIC), BRAC, Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) and the GHT Camp.
As most of the patients who come are not very educated nor do they have access to good healthcare, medical awareness is lacking. In order to combat this, Good Heal Trust presents health awareness sessions twice a week on general health advice to patients of the Korail Slum. These sessions are much needed for many of the families. Advice pertaining to personal hygiene, family planning, common diseases amongst women, common diseases present in households and many other issues were discussed. Focus Group Discussions (FDGs) were held with 610 people within the slum. Senior nurses along with the help of team members help to conduct the sessions. We hope the families will benefit from the discussions and invite others to join in the upcoming months.
There were two health camps held this month, on the 16th and 26th of November, 2014. A total of 67 patients were given health services in these camps. The doctors who provided service at the camps were the same from last month’s health camps, Dr. Apurbo Kumer Saha (from the Medicine Department) and Dr. Farhana Khatun (Senior Medical Officer), Gulshan Diabetic Center.
Within these camps, not only are adults given service but children from the ages of 0-13 are also given service. As has been noted, a pediatrician helps out during the camp service.
In the camps, a total of 48 patients registered as newly registered patients. 19 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.
In addition to the above, 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 providing our healthcare services to those who need it the most.
Nurses’ Skill Enhancement Program
It has officially been one year since the starting of the NSEP program at National Heart Foundation. November was the last month of formal classes. Final exams were conducted in Nursing, English, Grooming and Computers. The nurses will be given their certificates shortly.
The trust is proud to note that the nurses have shown great improvement in the past one year. We hope other hospitals will take note and start up such initiatives for their nursing professional as well. We will keep readers posted regarding further updates on the NSEP project.
GHT Okaidi Health Clinic
As was mentioned in last month’s newsletter, Good Heal Trust is pleased to announce that it has started up a new health program for Grameen Shikka’s ten schools in Mirpur, sponsored by and in collaboration with Okaidi. The team will be providing basic medical care to the students of these ten schools.
In November, a total of 589 children were given basic checkups within the ten schools (each having two shifts). The children’s weight, height, BP and other basic health matters were looked into. Each child has a medical file set for him/her. This will be maintained by the trust whenever the child is given a checkup
This month the trust noted that many children have complained about abdominal pain, joint pain, sight and hearing problems, and skin related problems. The team has recommended different doctors for the children according to their medical needs.
The health awareness session that took place this month was related to hand washing. As these sessions are important for the children, the trust has paid great attention to delivering interactive sessions. The objectives of the hand wash sessions were to reduce the spread of diseases, to improve the health of children and to transfer the good practices to their family.
The project has kicked off to a good start. Many of the children’s parents were happy that such an initiative has been taken to look into the medical well being of their children. We hope to work in collaboration with the teachers, parents and all those concerned with the well being of the children of these schools.
The team is working with Bangladesh Institute of Health Science (BIHS) to get essential medical care for the children. It is also looking forward to starting up Skype sessions (telemedicine services) for the children in the upcoming months. We look forward to continue bringing this project to greater heights.
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