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Overview
One of the major problems facing India is the health status of its people,
particularly the women and children. We have stated in our Mission
Statement our endeavor to improve the quality of health care of the
poor who live in rural and remote areas. The George Foundation has introduced
two major projects in the field of health care. They are:
1. Baldev Medical and Community Centre
2. EDPS2000 and the PHC project
In 1997, we became aware of the poor quality of primary healthcare among
rural communities. Rural India faces many very serious health problems
that are not adequately addressed. Government-run Primary Health Centres
(PHCs) that serve the medical needs of the rural population have failed
to deliver even basic healthcare to the rural population. Consequently,
several communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis,
typhoid and others are rapidly spreading. Inadequate infrastructure, shortage
of physicians, and poor management have resulted in the breakdown of many
Primary Health Centers run by the government.
In the year 2000, the government of Tamil Nadu assigned one of its PHCs
(Bagalur PHC that serves 80,000 people) to The George Foundation to "co-manage"
its operations. Within less than one year, this PHC became a model institution
in all of Tamil Nadu, delivering quality healthcare to its population.
This was accomplished with the implementation of a diagnostic and health
management system (EDPS2000 described in the attachment) developed by
The George Foundation, improvement of the physical infrastructure, and
through the implementation of superior management procedures.
The foundation gradually withdrew its staff from the Bagalur PHC towards
the end of 2003, after the EDPS system was tested by a team of medical
doctors from Johns Hopkins earlier in the year, and subsequently approved
for wider application at the district level and beyond.
Separately, the Foundation constructed its own medical and community centre
(Baldev Medical & Community Centre) in Hosur Taluk, Tamil Nadu, to
demonstrate how healthcare, health education and many essential rural
community services can be delivered in a cost-effective way within a private
model. Once again, within a period of 18 months, the Baldev Centre became
a model institution serving a rural population of over 15,000 in 17 villages.
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