Our work
The Anahat Clinic
The Anahat Clinic provides the full range of services of a primary care clinic for free:
- Free medical consultation – with a full-time registered allopath.
- Free medicines – we stock around 100 different medicines based on the WHO and ICMR list of essential drugs for primary care.
- Free diagnostic tests – we offer our patients a WHO recommended panel of 70 tests, including blood and urine tests, x-rays, scans and MRIs. A phlebotomist at the clinic collects blood and urine samples which are taken back to the lab every day. Patients who require x-rays and scans are registered in the clinic, after which they get the scan/x-ray done in the lab and the report is sent back to the clinic.
Prerna
According to the International Diabetes Federation, India is the epicenter of diabetes mellitus – in 2019, India had 77 million diabetic patients, second only to China. This figure is expected to double to 134 million by 2045. Direct cost implications of living with diabetes are a burden on the individual and their families, while indirectly there is also a cost borne by society and the state, associated with loss of productivity. In India addressing the expenditure on diabetes is a massive challenge due to several issues and stumbling blocks, viz. dearth of awareness regarding diabetes, its risk factors, prevention strategies, health care systems, poverty-stricken economy, non-adherence to medicines, etc.
At Anahat, we recognized the need for immediate action to stem the tide of diabetes and to introduce cost-effective treatment to reverse this trend. We partnered with Medtronic Labs to introduce Prerna, a special programme for people living with diabetes, hypertension, and co-morbid diseases. With Prerna, we integrate social and clinical interventions in a group setting with patients at the Anahat Clinic every week, focussing on the social and behavioural determinants of diabetes and hypertension. Patients also receive ongoing medication, lab testing, and doctor visits to address clinical needs.
Ananda
In Bangalore, as in most cities, mental health services are available only in large tertiary hospitals or through private clinics. Tertiary hospitals offer mainly psychiatric care, while private clinics and counsellors are unaffordable for people from lower income communities. Ananda provides a safe-space for patients at the Anahat Clinic to talk about their problems, filling the gap in availability of counselling and therapy services for the urban poor.
Ananda provides counselling and therapy for individuals, couples and parents. We also engage in Role Play Therapy, to strengthen social and interpersonal skills and help patients learn techniques to manage and deal with stress. We conduct group counselling for older women to help them understand and deal with the symptoms of menopause, and organise health awareness workshops for various patient cohorts at the clinic. We also used Group Therapy as a tool to demonstrate de-stressing techniques such as colouring.
Ananda Group Therapy showing ways to de-stress, on World Mental Health Day 2022
Anahat Community Medical Camps
Anahat’s goal is to improve health outcomes for underserved and marginalised communities. The first step towards this is understanding the health-seeking behaviour of these communities and getting primary data regarding their disease risk profiles. This is best done through a health camp which people respond very positively to, since it brings free and best-in-class primary health care to their doorsteps.
To bridge the gaps that exist in the delivery and management of public health, we conducted free medical camps in underserved communities in Bangalore. We partnered with Hasirudala, a nonprofit that works with informal waste pickers in the city, most of whom are migrant workers and St. Martha’s Hospital’s Community Medicine Department to conduct the camps. Our community health camps take free primary healthcare directly to the community, offering free clinical consultation with a doctor and free medicines.
Through these camps we are able to extrapolate community disease risk profiles, which are an indication of the vulnerabilities of the community. They also serve as a high impact tool to prevent and manage diseases effectively within communities.
Covid screening and community testing camps
To help address the fear of testing and being hospitalised, Anahat collaborated with the government to run community testing camps to make testing easily accessible. Over 9 months during the Covid-19 pandemic, we were able to provide easy access to testing services for 2,71,000 people in Bangalore.
Anahat staff at testing sites in Bangalore
Covid vaccination camps
When the Covid vaccine drive began in India in January 2021, many people particularly from lower income communities were hesitant to get vaccinated because of misinformation being spread on social media and Whatsapp. By May 2021, the second wave in India was at its peak, hospitalisations and deaths were at record highs and people started rushing to get vaccinated. Government clinics were short of vaccine
supply and were turning people away. In response, Anahat conducted 6 vaccination camps through which 3000 people were vaccinated. In the days leading up to the camp, we did door to door campaigning to spread the word. We also partnered with a private hospital which provided the medical team and data entry staff for registration on the government portal.
Health camps
When and where possible, we conducted community medical camps to provide treatment and medicines to underserved communities, as general health services were not easily available during the pandemic. Despite lockdowns, we conducted 20 health camps, reaching 1500 patients, most of whom were able to refill their prescriptions for diabetes and hypertension medications.
Telemedicine
When the pandemic struck in March 2020, we had to quickly pivot to telehealth consultations since all health services including clinics, diagnostic centres, medical stores had to shut down. We used WhatsApp video calls for the clinical consult, prescribed medication based on the consult and the most recent diagnostic report that the patient had. We did this for 9 months from March to December in 2020, during which time we were able to reach 1,000 patients and send medicines to 500 people.
Medicine packets being delivered to patients during the Covid-19 lockdown.