Abhishek announces 'Sebaashray' programme to provide healthcare to 23 lakh people

PTI, KOLKATA, DEC 1, 2024 : To provide healthcare benefits to 23 lakh people in the Diamond Harbour Lok Sabha constituency, TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee has announced the launch of the 'Sebaashray' programme from January 2 next year. The Sebaashray programme will continue for two and a half months.

The TMC National General Secretary said the programme would be launched at Amtala under the constituency, and it will cover 23 lakh residents across seven assembly constituencies, 71 rural gram panchayats, and 93 urban wards.

"The initiative is supported by a camp machinery consisting of 1,200 doctors, 500 diagnosticians, 1,500 volunteers, and 12 referral hospitals," he said on Saturday.

Over 2,800 active camp days are planned, with 40 camps operating daily and an expected footfall of 500 people at each camp on average. The biggest challenge in providing proper medical care, identified by us, was ensuring the sufficient availability of doctors to assist over 23 lakh people. We realized that doctors will not be able to give more than two days' time every week due to their prior professional commitments.

"We initially thought that having a team of 300 doctors would suffice. However, we soon realized that to serve 23 lakh people across 2,000 booths in the constituency over multiple days at a stretch, we would need a minimum of 400 to 500 doctors. I was warned that it would be difficult to get so many doctors for this initiative. However, I was informed last night that over 1,200 doctors shared their details, and we were not able to accommodate them all in the auditorium today," he said at the programme on Saturday.

Banerjee said that after the end of the Sebaashray initiative in March 2025, a convention of 5,000 doctors will be organized.

"We will make efforts to organize a convention of 5,000 doctors before Bengali New Year in Kolkata. We will ensure that doctors who couldn't be with us today are accommodated in that event. I am sure that the bond that all the elected representatives of Diamond Harbour and I will be forming with the medical community today will stay with us for a lifetime. This is the Diamond Harbour Model," he said.

"We will be running health camps in every Assembly constituency for 10 days with a minimum of 40 camps per constituency. The camps will start in Diamond Harbour, followed by Falta, Satgachhia, Bishnupur, Metiabruz, Budge Budge, and Maheshtala," the TMC MP said.

"From January 2–11, this programme will take place in Diamond Harbour. From January 12 onwards, it will start in Falta, and so on and so forth. We will cover 7 Assembly constituencies in 70 days. In the last five days, we will reorganize the camps in multiple booths," he said.

"This can be referred to as 'Duare Swasthya Porisheba'," he said. The services that will be provided at these camps, alongside doctor consultations, include free medicines, check-ups on BMI and blood pressure, as well as tests for dengue and malaria, he said.