Corporate Social Responsibility

Background:

India has a large shortfall of doctors. According to the World Health Organization, India has seven doctors for every 10,000 people, half the global average. 50,000 critical care specialists are required as per data from the Indian Medical Association, but India has just 8,350. Adding to the shortage is the fact that the geographic distribution of doctors is uneven; with urban areas having four times greater number of allopathic doctors compared to rural areas. These shortages exist despite India having one of the largest medical education systems in the world, with more than 410 government and private medical schools and an annual intake of 50,000 students for MBBS courses. Unwillingness of doctors to work in rural areas is another challenge. Considering these challenges, the objective of Udaan program has been to nurture the potential of rural students from disadvantaged backgrounds and create a platform which they could leverage on towards a MBBS degree. It is hoped that these enabled students would fulfil their dreams of becoming able physicians, have a multiplier effect among students and practice ethical healthcare thereby serving the larger community. Project Udaan is present in Kanakapura and Bidar, with stakeholders including Mindtree & Jain Group of Institutions in Kanakapura and Shaheen Group of Institutions in Bidar. In 2014, 56 high-school students were selected from government schools in Kanakapura while in 2017, 20 pre-university students were selected and are part of the Udaan program in Bidar. Apart from scholarships, these students are mentored by the Narayana Health panel of academicians and physicians on a regular basis. The purpose of the mentoring program is to provide support, motivation and inspiration to the students. The students visit the hospital, and get a chance to interact with eminent doctors from various medical disciplines. Doctors share their own life experiences with the students, to facilitate learning and get the students to develop an attitude that will help them achieve their goals.

Program objective:

1. To inspire:
   • Inspire students in high school so that they consider the option of wanting to become future doctors and serving society.
2. To Select:
   • To select bright students from poor rural backgrounds, who want to become doctors.
3. To Coach:
   • To support the students with academic inputs:
   • To deepen their conceptual understanding
   • To Help them get higher grades in their school exams
   • To help them get higher scores in the competitive medical entrance examination and get a seat in a medical college
4. NH Hospital Visits:
   • Regular visits to NH multispecialty hospitals to keep them motivated and inspired. To interact with doctors who will provide them the encouragement and motivation to pursue their dream of becoming future doctors
5. To Monitor/Track:
   • Monitoring academic performance at regular intervals, to encourage the student to perform better and set higher benchmarks.

Compliance with the law:

Udaan is a comprehensive program that starts with inspiring students to take up the medical profession and those who get selected as part of the program are provided guidance coaching and support to help them achieve this dream. As mentioned in the ‘General Circular No. 21/2014’, educating the masses falls under the clause ‘promoting education’ of the Companies Act 2013. Hence, this program aligns with item (ii) in Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013, Section 135, specifically to the clause of ‘promoting education.’

Target beneficiaries:

Government schools across the district of rural Kanakapura were identified as the target beneficiary group. From this we selected 56 students for the program with the objective of inspiring, coaching and mentoring bright students from underprivileged rural backgrounds and helping them achieve their dream of becoming future doctors Social and economic background of the students was before they become part of our program.

Background:

The Care Companion Program (CC Program) was first set up in 2013 in the NH hospital in Mysore. The program was started in direct response to the needs of patients and to recognize patient family members as an untapped existing resource. This program is designed to educate patient family members with low or no prior medical knowledge for attending to the needs of patients.

Program objective:

The program objective is to harnesses patient attendant capabilities by creating a position for them within the current hospital personnel framework and, through a training process, to become additional in-hospital Care Companions (CC).

The program aims to achieve the following objectives:

• Improved quality of care
• Reduction in hospital re-admission rates
• Reduction in post-surgery complication

Services provided under project:

• In-hospital education-cum-training program for patients’ family members.
• Multilingual group teaching sessions by using interactive videos for identifying warning signs of illness, checking temperature, pulse, blood pressure, providing cardiac care, timely medications etc. These sessions are conducted in Hindi, Tamil, English, Telugu, Bengali, Assamese and Kannada. Currently educational sessions have been initiated for oncology in Mysore, which deals with side effects of radiation therapy and chemotherapy, stoma care, screening, nutrition, exercise and positive psychology.
• Practical skills testing under the supervision of the nursing staff to build confidence.
• Training on daily activities that aid recovery of the patients and reduce risk.

Compliance with the law:

Through this program, NH as healthcare service provider ensures that their patients not only receive quality care within their hospitals but also long after they are discharged.

As mentioned in the ‘General Circular No. 21/2014’, enabling access to, or improving the delivery of, public health systems falls under the clause ‘promoting healthcare’ of the Companies Act 2013. Hence this program aligns with item (i) in Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013, Section 135, specifically to the clause of ‘promoting healthcare including preventive healthcare’.

Target beneficiaries:

The ‘Care Companion’ program has been implemented in NH Hospitals in Mysore, Bangalore, Jaipur, Shimoga, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Dharwad, Davangere, Jamshedpur, Kolkata and Raipur. The program focuses on training family members or friends of patients admitted at NH hospitals, and hence it provides direct and indirect benefits to people at large.

• Direct: The family members of patients who receive caregiving training.
• Indirect: The patients who are in turn benefited with continuous and better care.

Narayana Hrudayalaya Foundation acquired the wireless operating license in Jan 2017 and we have been granted the spectrum - 90.4 towards establishing a community radio station in Health City, Anekal. The broader objective of our community radio station would be to serve as a consensus-building platform wherein communication processes would help the communities around us to share common understanding and common goals.

Program objective:

• The specific focus areas of our community radio is on Health, Education, Environment and Culture
• The station would support promotive and preventive health efforts by using local languages to communicate directly with diverse listeners’ groups.
• It would also be a portal to disseminate information on ongoing NH CSR activities which directly impact health. Herein, the relevant citizens could avail of the benefits of such programs.
• It would enable local government stakeholders to liaise on broad issues impacting health, education, environment, safety as well as culture.
• It would nurture capacities of local stakeholders including NGOs, Educational institutions, SHGs as well as local organizations to record and broadcast on a range of issues including health needs, awareness of health schemes, education, sensitization to government programs, participative efforts of youth, cultural and environmental programs in Anekal Taluk.

Target Beneficiaries

The population residing in Anekal Taluk as well as within the primary and secondary zone of our community radio would be beneficiaries under the program. Being an inclusive forum, the initiative is dependent on active participation of myriad stakeholders in Anekal Taluk.

Key outcomes

• Focus on health, environment, culture and education related topics on Radio Health City
• Developing robust content based on inputs from internal stakeholders in Health City as well as external stakeholders in Anekal Taluk
• Collaboration with larger network of community radio stations In Karnataka
• Generating sustained relationship with stakeholders in the community towards the community radio initiative

Compliance with Law

Through this program, NH as healthcare service provider ensures that caregivers are adequately prepared to handle needs of their loved ones not only in the hospital but also after discharge. As mentioned in the ‘General Circular No. 21/2014’, educating the masses falls under the clause ‘promoting education’ of the Companies Act 2013. Hence, this program aligns with item (ii) in Schedule VII of the Companies Act 2013, Section 135, specifically to the clause of ‘promoting education.