![What the numbers do not account for…..night beat in KG Halli]()
by iphindia | Oct 24, 2012 | Blog, Latest Updates
Life has its unique ways of showing you what you might be looking for. As a purely logistic decision, it made more sense for me to stay overnight in the community centre and this gave opportunity to observe a different side to KGHalli….after dusk. Suddenly “urban” lifestyle took on new meaning for me in the context of health planning.
A walk down Tannery road at 10 pm is like walking down any other big street in Bangalore at 7pm. Like the jaws of a aging man, dark gaps where the bike workshops punctuate the shining rows of shops, many with brightly lit interiors, the city seems to swallow one up. I notice most of the people walking the street are men; the rare family, but as a single unaccompanied woman, I do not draw many glances. This is a world where anonymity is the norm. People are very occupied, earning their living. Every street corner has a hole in the wall eatery with the owner dishing out hot chicken wings from a frying hot ‘kadhai’. Large neon signs in every colour advertise “goodies” of all kinds, from clothes to shoes to accessories to ….and here we have it…. to medicines. As I strolled along, three large, glass- fronted pharmacies caught my attention, the window displays abundantly showcasing expensive and (to my mind), unnecessary products. The vitamins of old have been successfully replaced by “sugar-free” and equivalent products meant to lull the obese patient into the ‘soft’ pill option.
It is well known that many hospitals have their own pharmacies – convenience for the patient being the supposed rationale. By extension, the small clinics often have a drugstore next door. However, by a strange twist, the unstated, unpalatable truth is that the drugstore has the clinic and therefore the doctor. So it was with a great sense of curiosity that I wandered into the newly built 15 bedded hospital adjacent to the large glass fronted pharmacy. I had met the Managing Director , a twenties- something doctor when the hospital opened an hour ago, but community feedback was that it had not really take off. So I was surprised to see three patients in the ’emergency’ ward, all on ‘glucose drips’ , two of these being children. I caught sight of two ‘duty doctors’ identifiable by their stethoscopes and slightly preoccupied air. Evidently the beds are slowly filling up, although there is no permanent staff in place.
As I continued down the road I greeted an older homeopathy doctor known to me. When our team did a survey of existing service providers he had said he comes only once a week. Now, he sheepishly told me ,he comes every night between 9 and 10 pm, this is clear understanding with his regular patients.
And as I continue to walk down Tannery road, every clinic locked in the daylight hours when we have been visiting has been magically opened…with functioning health service providers. It appears they have each created their little niche with specific timings and patient profiles.
When we sit and plan the number of doctors required to serve a particular population ….24/7 services and continuity of care, my lesson from this night would be “Beware the oversimplifying standardisations…..you need to factor in the ingenuity of the human being in his need for survival, where he will not just meet a demand, but unblinkingly create it!’
So one more challenge to the complexity of local health systems……
Take a walk, my friend, take a walk……..
by iphindia | Sep 28, 2012 | Latest Updates, Research
The Health Inc Karnataka team organized a two-day training on 24th and 25th September 2012 for both district supervisors and field investigators at Vishranti Nilayam, Bangalore. The main objectives of the training were to train the field teams from all four districts on administering the follow-up survey questionnaire or form 2, to review the Kannada version of the questionnaire, and to orient them regarding their role and responsibility in the next stage of data collection in the field. The district coordinators along with the Bangalore team members conducted the training using a mix of lectures, role-plays, and group discussions. The district supervisors also participated in additional sessions on generating micro-plans, and maintaining financial records. This survey was aimed at collecting details of significant events in the preceding month in survey households if any, and was to be conducted monthly till December 2012.
![What the numbers do not account for…..night beat in KG Halli]()
by iphindia | Sep 11, 2012 | Latest Updates
The EPHP 2012 August newsletter was just released. To view it online, click here
To view older newsletters, click here
To know more about EPHP 2012 visit www.ephp.in
by iphindia | Sep 10, 2012 | Latest Updates
Ward no 30, KG Halli, witnessed a unique event in the form of an exhibition, open to all, in the Bismillah Shaadi Mahal on Tannery Road between 5th and 8th September. The exhibition highlighted health issues of the residents, showcasing problems, tracing locally, social determinants of health, and offering some suggestions on healthy practices for all. An important element of the exhibition was the dissemination of the findings of the Urban Health Project, of the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru that has been working locally from 2009 to date. IPH Bengaluru has been working with both the CHC (Community Health Centre – under the Karnataka state health services), the UHC (Urban health Centre – under the BBMP) as well as the 27 private health providers and hospitals in the area.
See more photos here and here
Rapid urbanisation is a national concern, and KG Halli highlights the reason why. The ward having been created in 2010, is home to 44,500 residents in less than a square kilometer. The purpose of the careful documentation of health processes over the last three years is to feed constructively into the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), which is long overdue. The special sessions on the 5th 6th and 7th September with policy makers,senior administrators and health officials is to share some of these findings.
The Institute has trained a team of community health assistants (along the lines of the ASHA workers) representative of the multicultural population that characterises the area. The community health assistants are key players in the study having visited homes, advised on health issues, counseled on mental health problems in a stressful living and working landscape.
Key in the workings of the Institute’s approach has been a school health programme for students of classes 6-9, in an effort to work with the youth of the area. The children are performing street theatre “nukkad natakas” in the days from the initial rally on September 1st through the exhibition dates at various street corners around the ward. Their plays highlight issues like water, garbage and sanitation and child labour which is rampant in the bakeries of the area.
Findings from the survey conducted in 2010 show that people are being pushed into poverty by paying the bills every month for their diabetes and hypertension medications, leave aside hospitilisations demanded by complications of these diseases. 10 percent of the population is afflicted by these lifestyle diseases , some patients as young as 24 years. The way forward is to integrate prevention and treatment -to reduce suffering and expense on these man made diseases of industrialisation. IPH is bringing key local stakeholders together, the premise being that dialogue will bring ideas for affordable quality care in the future.
![What the numbers do not account for…..night beat in KG Halli]()
by iphindia | Sep 3, 2012 | Latest Updates, Research
The Urban Health Team from the Institute of Public Health, Bengaluru organised a rally with over 100 local schoolchildren in KG Halli on 1st September to draw attention to a unique event in the form of an exhibition, open to all, in the Bismillah Shaadi Mahal on Tannery Road between 5th and 8th September. An important element of the exhibition will be the dissemination of the findings of the Urban Health Project, that has been working locally from 2009 to date.
The rally involved street theatre performances by the schoolchildren and highlighted issues such as; water, sanitation, waste disposal and smoking, that are faced by the residents of ward no 30. The study conducted by IPH, Bengaluru found that 1 in 10 people in KG Halli suffered from chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. The rally and exhibition draw attention to the dire straits of many urban residents in Bengaluru, even with access to both state and BBMP services. The event was prominently covered by the press, and their articles can be found here.
The Times of India
The Hindu
The Deccan Chronicle
To view the full album click here
![What the numbers do not account for…..night beat in KG Halli]()
by iphindia | Aug 24, 2012 | Latest Updates
In collaboration with Maastricht University, Institute of public health organized an exposure visit to India for the students pursing Honours International Health at Maastricht University. The second batch of Maastricht students completed this exposure visit in the month of July and August, this year. The Institute of Public Health, planned, designed, coordinated and executed the entire program to suite the learning needs of the students.
A batch of 13 students, studying Honours International Health (Maastricht University) participated in the program and received an orientation to the health system of our county from a socio-cultural perspective. The program was designed on the principals of problem based learning. The students after receiving a brief orientation, visited public and private health facilities in Tumkur, Gudalur, KG Halli and other parts of Bangalore. A special feature of the program was the family visit that were organised in Tumkur and KG Halli. This visit helped the students interacted with selected families to understand their perception and opinion on health care provided to them in the area. These semi structured interview allowed them to get a general feel of the socio-economic status and religious and cultural aspects of these families and its effected their life in general and health in particular. They also visited an NGO working in the area of women’s right and gender equity, gave them an insight into the gender issues of rural women in India and its effects on health. The visit to Gudalur provided an opportunity for the students to interact with the adivasi’s of the region and get a sneak peek into their lives, displacement from their natural habitat and its effect on their health and economic status and various other issues surrounding it.
Each visit was followed by a debriefing session where questions and queries from students were discussed in detail. The exposure visit ended with an assignment by the students on their learning from the field visits about the health care system of the country, the socio economic cultural and religious diversity of the country and the interaction between them.
The students in their feedback express that the exposure visit not only contributed to their professional knowledge but also moved them at a personal level. Given below is some of the feedback by students:
- “Visiting the field was a very good experience for me to really understand how things are working in this country. When you just hear the theory at home you would never get this experience and you would never understand how this really works.”
- “It was a great experience and I have learned a lot.”
- “I think the experience and exposures are the most memorable things of the programme, because these are the things we wouldn’t be able to do back home. I especially liked the family visits, since they left a big impression and taught us a lot about the culture.”
- “This whole experience has been such an eye-opener. In social, psychological and professional aspect. My compliments to the IPH-staff for putting this program together. To my opinion every part of the Indian health system was showed.”
- “I found it a very valuable experience for my personal development and professional development in general.”
- “From my point of view, our visit to India was a very valuable experience. We were enabled to see so many things that we most probably would not have seen if we had come to India as ‘normal’ tourists. I really enjoyed being in touch with people from the different communities as well as the IPH staff and thereby learning a lot more about Indian culture as well as about my own character and my country of origin.”
A walk down Tannery road at 10 pm is like walking down any other big street in Bangalore at 7pm. Like the jaws of a aging man, dark gaps where the bike workshops punctuate the shining rows of shops, many with brightly lit interiors, the city seems to swallow one up. I notice most of the people walking the street are men; the rare family, but as a single unaccompanied woman, I do not draw many glances. This is a world where anonymity is the norm. People are very occupied, earning their living. Every street corner has a hole in the wall eatery with the owner dishing out hot chicken wings from a frying hot ‘kadhai’. Large neon signs in every colour advertise “goodies” of all kinds, from clothes to shoes to accessories to ….and here we have it…. to medicines. As I strolled along, three large, glass- fronted pharmacies caught my attention, the window displays abundantly showcasing expensive and (to my mind), unnecessary products. The vitamins of old have been successfully replaced by “sugar-free” and equivalent products meant to lull the obese patient into the ‘soft’ pill option.
It is well known that many hospitals have their own pharmacies – convenience for the patient being the supposed rationale. By extension, the small clinics often have a drugstore next door. However, by a strange twist, the unstated, unpalatable truth is that the drugstore has the clinic and therefore the doctor. So it was with a great sense of curiosity that I wandered into the newly built 15 bedded hospital adjacent to the large glass fronted pharmacy. I had met the Managing Director , a twenties- something doctor when the hospital opened an hour ago, but community feedback was that it had not really take off. So I was surprised to see three patients in the ’emergency’ ward, all on ‘glucose drips’ , two of these being children. I caught sight of two ‘duty doctors’ identifiable by their stethoscopes and slightly preoccupied air. Evidently the beds are slowly filling up, although there is no permanent staff in place.
