The four-tiered network includes small village shops, telemedicine “Sky” centers connected to a central medical facility in Delhi, diagnostic centers, and franchised clinics for referrals. Clients pay out of pocket for most services, offered at low prices that are fixed based on market research. For the neediest clients, services are covered through insurance, coupons, and vouchers from government plans. Franchisees pay a franchise fee for medicines, diagnostic services, and other products. WHP leverages innovative technologies and local program management to connect village telemedicine centers to a central medical facility in New Delhi.
Uttar Pradesh Pilot Program:
An estimated 4 million people live in the project area of Meerut, Muzzafarnagar and Bijnore districts in Uttar Pradesh State in India, 3 million of which reside in rural and remote villages. To reach such a large population, WHP established a network of local and regional providers, with a central base of operations in New Delhi.
Using state-of-the-art satellite, broadband and computer technologies, the project links qualified city-based doctors with patients living in remote settings. Contracted local partners manage training, technological support, and delivery of medicines and supplies to all providers in the WHP network.
The health services provided by the WHP network include comprehensive preventive and curative care, as well as reproductive health and family planning services. Family planning is provided on an ongoing basis at the shops, telemedicine centers and franchisee clinics -- these providers also help WHP organize annual transit clinics bringing services close to the clients. Because these transit clinics qualify for special government grants, WHP is able to deliver care to the poorest communities in close collaboration with the public sector.The challenge before WHP is not only creating access to services for the poor but also ensuring that these services are affordable and of good quality. The project will create access by training and employing suitable people in the community. It will integrate family planning into the providers’ existing suite of health services, thus making family planning viable.
The project will use India’s well-established market-distribution system to make non-clinical family planning methods, clinical supplies, and therapeutic medicines available for purchase at, or close to, the village.
In less than 18 months, the project established a health service delivery network covering 1,300 rural villages of Uttar Pradesh through 1,300 shops, 120 telemedicine centers, 9 diagnostic centers and 16 franchisee clinics. The project’s central medical facility conducts up to 150 tele-consultations per day.
Growth plans: WHP plans to replicate the model in Bihar, focusing on disease management of infectious diseases like TB and childhood pneumonia, with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates has also initiated a rigorous evaluation of the model’s health impact.
Additional Information:
