BHUBANESWAR: Minister of State for Petroleum and Natural Gas Dharmendra Pradhan on Sunday flagged off 11 Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) which will travel across villages in the State and provide free primary healthcare services.
Equipped with a qualified doctor, nurse, laboratory technician, pharmacist, essential medicines, diagnostic kit and information and awareness materials on health and hygiene, the MMUs will provide doorstep healthcare facilities in rural areas.
“The mobile medical units will definitely come to the rescue of people who are in urgent need of medical attention in interior pockets of the State. The patients can get free diagnosis and treatment facilities at their doorstep,” Pradhan told reporters.
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 km to 40 km from its base location.
One MMU can cover four to five villages in a day on a regular basis and cater to the health needs of at least 100 people on an average. The vehicles can also function as a referral clinic and ambulance during exigencies.
Six of the MMUs, which are specially equipped Tempo Traveller vehicles, have been dedicated by Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd. Of the rest, four have been donated by GAIL (India) Limited and one by Oil and Natural Gas Ltd (ONGC) as part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives.
GAIL has deployed four MMUs under its healthcare initiative - Project Arogya, aimed at providing nutrition, health and sanitation and drinking water facilities.
The health units will primarily provide services at villages in Cuttack, Jajpur, Angul and Dhenkanal districts where the natural gas pipelines are being laid under the Pradhan Mantri Urja Ganga project. HPCL has deployed six MMUs under its Project Dhanwantari that focuses on creating a healthy community by providing free of cost medical care.