By Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, August 20, 2017: In a bid to provide doorstep healthcare facilities in rural Odisha, Union Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas (Independent Charge) Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday flagged off 11 Mobile Medical Units (MMUs).

These MMUs will travel across villages in the state providing free primary healthcare services. Each MMU will have a qualified Doctor (minimum MBBS), nurse (ANM), laboratory technician, pharmacist, essential medicines, diagnostic kit (Swashtya Jaanch Machine) and information and awareness material on health and hygiene.

The MMUs are GPS enabled so that their movement can be tracked on a real-time basis. The project is designed to cover villages in a range of 25 to 40 kms from its base location. One MMU can cover 4 to 5 villages in a day on a regular basis and can cater to the health needs of 90 to 100 people on an average. In emergencies, they can also function as a referral clinic and as ambulance also.

The facilities extended through the MMU will also include quarterly eye-screening and medical health check-up camps, free distribution of Moksha Sanitary Napkins to adolescent girls and women in villages, free distribution of Shuddhu tablets for purification of water and IEC material for creating awareness on Swachhata, health and hygiene issues.

GAIL has deployed the four MMUs as part of its CSR initiative Project Arogya (Wellness) which provides nutrition, health and sanitation and drinking water facilities. They will primarily provide services to villages along the GAIL natural gas pipelines being constructed in Odisha under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project, i.e., in the districts of Cuttack, Jajpur, Angul and Dhenkenal. The project will be implemented through Wockhardt Foundation.

HPCL has deployed six MMUs as part of Project Dhanwantari under Healthcare focus area of CSR that aims to create a healthy community by providing free of cost medical care at the doorsteps of villagers in remote rural areas.