Given task to work in tandem with the Health Department in rolling out diagnostic services in 12 district hospitals of the State, SRl Diagnostics is looking to reach all community health centers spread up to grass root levels. The idea is to provide pathological tests right up to blocks or even further by reaching out to the people.
Explaining the ideas of the pathological service major, Chief Executive Officer of SRl Diagnostics Arindam Haldar said that the firm is going out of way to serve the people of Jharkhand.
“We have not kept ourselves confined to just what was agreed in the tender documents. We realised that awareness level among masses towards pathological tests are very-very low here. In the last six months, we have worked extensively in taking labs to the patients and as many as 40 camps to collect samples as well as generate awareness have been organised in rural areas of the districts under our jurisdiction,” said Haldar in a formal chat with The Pioneer on Wednesday.
The healthcare firm already running chain of 370-odd laboratories across the county is looking to set up sample collection centers to over 80 community healthcare centers along with 12 districts level hospitals at Hazaribagh, Dumka, Koderma, Giridih, Bokaro, Godda, Dhanbad, Deoghar, Jamtara, Ramgarh, Pakur, Sahibganj, added the CEO.
SRl is working under PPP mode to provide quality pathological services under cluster-2 areas identified in the State. The service is free of cost for BPl families while for other the rate fixed by the Government is charged. The areas under its domain cover over 1.8 crore population of which around 42.6 per cent are BPl.
“Jharkhand is our third such destination after Himachal Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. Initially, we had to meet odds due to lower level of awareness towards diagnostic services. We are thankful to the Government for the kind of support we received in the form of basic infrastructure such as space for setting up lab at local levels, power and water supplies etc. We also partnered with community based leaders coming in the form of sahiyas, mukhias etc to get in touch with the villagers quite easily,” added the CEO counting latest figures which has crossed 8.5 lakh tests of different kind involving around four lakh people, majority of them from the BPl since 2015.
Talking about future plans, he said that benefits of ‘JSSK’ (Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram) schemes could be tapped so that all expecting mothers can be brought under health security cover besides organising more awareness-cum-sample collection camps to ensure reliable testing for the people.
