Elderly residents of FE Block will receive a pre-Puja gift on October 2 — a chance for health monitoring closer home. A wellness centre will be opened at the FE community centre with focus on geriatric care. It will operate thrice a week — on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday — in the afternoons.
The good news for residents of neighbouring blocks is they can also avail of the service.
The Salt Lake FE Block Residents’ Association has built a semi-permanent structure next to its community centre, named Arogya Health and Wellness Centre, where doctors will be available for consultation from next month. The service will be offered with support from Protect the Warriors, an association of doctors formed during the Covid first wave which has since provided medical care across Bidhannagar Assembly constituency area under the Sparsho banner.
Pallab Bhattacharya, secretary of the residents’ association, said the decision to start the wellness centre was taken considering the health needs of the block members, especially the elderly population, and to take a community-based approach towards healthcare involving the young generation.
Bijon Kundu, convenor, of the block association’s health sub-committee, said: “We hope to achieve two targets through the wellness centre — comprehensive care for our senior citizens and specialised care for the general population. Initially we have planned three days a week with both general and specialised services. Gradually, a general physician will sit on a regular basis while the schedule for specialist doctors will be worked out with Protect the Warriors according to availability,” said Kundu, who is himself a radiologist. The fees charged will affordable — Rs 350 for specialists and Rs 200 for general physicians.
On the three days when the centre would stay open, a general physician will be accompanied by a specialist doctor. “We have requested for an orthopaedic and physical medicine specialist on one day, a general medicine cum cardiology specialist on another and a neurology specialist on the remaining day,” said Bhattacharya.
The clinic will be open from 4pm to 6pm on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Walk-in registration will be allowed in the initial weeks.
During the Puja days, when the clinic will stay shut, the association has decided to set up a helpline for block residents. “Medical attention is difficult to get during the festival. So we are trying to offer basic support in that period,” the block secretary added.
The block association, Kundu pointed out, always had a health sub-committee. “We had an elderly general physician sit on the first floor of the community centre. But as patients dwindled with the lockdown last year, she discontinued her service.”
With the onset of Covid, the sub-committee had started a door-to-door voluntary service for elderly residents, offering food materials, nurse, medicines or oxygen supply as and when needed. “Once the committee’s term expired this June and a new committee was formed, we thought of ways to build on this support, for the sake of our elderly residents,” Kundu said.
Neighbour feted
On September 12, when the launch of the clinic was announced, the association had also organised a health check-up camp and a felicitation programme at the block community centre.
The health check-up was conducted by 15 doctors from Protect the Warriors, belonging to a range of disciplines, from general medicine and cardiology, orthopaedic and ENT to urology and gynaecology.
The camp was inaugurated by the vice-chancellor West Bengal University of Health Sciences Suhrita Paul.
“Since life expectancy is increasing, geriatric care should be a priority and special care needs to be taken of the elderly populace. We should take a pledge that no elderly member in either our block or anywhere else, should leave this world for negligence and lack of proper care,” said Paul. She added that in order to take care of the elderly people, a geriatric care unit with general medicine unit has been opened in each medical college of the state. She also appreciated the venture of the residents association for their initiative.
A resident of the block, Paul was also felicitated by Bhattacharya for being the first woman in the chair.
Paul said it was a matter of both “great honour” and embarrassment at having family members acknowledge and appreciate her achievement. “As a resident of FE Block for 26 years, I consider my neighbours as my family.”
Other than being a physician and a teacher by profession, she said she was also passionate about singing. “Earlier I have tried to entertain my block members whenever I had the opportunity to sing.”
Several doctors, including Joy Basu, vice-president, Apollo Gleneagles Hospitals, cardiologist Amit Roy and ENT specialist Avik Ghosh, the secretary of Protect the Warriors, were felicitated for their contribution and support.