The Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Ahmedabad, capital of Gujarat in western India, is branching off into healthcare. Its first experimental effort has already received positive response. management education, has developed a model for improved urban health services in collaboration with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC).

The Urban Health Care (UHC) being set up by the IIM’s Centre for Management of Health Services (CMHS) will be set up with a special focus on urban poor, living in slums and chawls.

Prof KV Ramani, coordinator of the Urban Health Project and the chairman of CMHS, along with Prof. Dileep Mavalankar have developed the concept.

Their model has already been implemented in the Vasna part of the capital and is getting a good response from the users.

The IIM-A model is based on extensive use of Geographic Information System (GIS) to locate urban health centres in each ward, to ensure availability, access, affordability and equity of healthcare services.

The new centre at present is receiving more than 100 outpatients daily. Majority of them are from the nearby slums and chawls who have so far depended on private healthcare or for want of a government facility in Vasna.

The suburb has a population of more than one lakh, with 40 per cent of the population living in slums and chawls.

According to Prof Ramani, the Vasna Urban Health Centre is the first of its kind in India providing a comprehensive line of services under one roof including consultation, lab and radiology services, medication, and referral services.

Source by www.medindia.net