VHP to expand its free health service programme to Kerala

Thiruvananthapuram: After a number of northern states, Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) is set to expand its free health service programme to Kerala as part of plans to strengthen its base in the state. The initiative, titled ‘India Health Line’ (IHL), envisaged to connect poor and deserving patients with specialist doctors and provide them free treatment, will be launched in the state after the civic body elections in November, VHP state President S J R Kumar said. [caption id=“attachment_2423390” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  AFP image[/caption] VHP has already initiated talks with a number of specialist doctors in the state in this regard and formed a panel of 1,000 doctors who have shown interest in partnering with the initiative, he said. The programme had already been launched in states like Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi and Maharashtra and the outfit had plans to expand it throughout the country. “Specialist health care is something which is still inaccessible for a larger section of people. Our objective is to identify the needy and deserving among them and connect them with doctors and provide them free health care,” Kumar told PTI. He said the programme would be implemented in four-phases in all 14 districts of the state. “We have a national toll free number for the programme and a call centre at Ahmedabad. Patients will be given this number and they can directly contact it,” he said. “Our volunteers will get in touch with the patient, enquire about their health condition and fix an appointment with their nearest doctor, who is included in our panel,” he said. The outfit also plans to appoint ‘health ambassadors’ in every district after giving them training in checkinganaemia, blood pressure, cholesterol and so on and conduct health camps in villages. “We are also planning to ensure the distribution of generic medicines to the poor and needy and enter into tie-up with super speciality hospitals to help them get free consultation of speciality doctors in the coming phases of the programme,” he said. Kumar said VHP had no political agenda behind this free health care initiative. “VHP is not at all a political party. So we do not have any particular political agenda behind this scheme. It is one of our number of social service schemes implemented across the country,” the leader added. PTI