Authors: Sunil Abraham, Sushil Mathew John, Archna Gupta, Seema Biswas, Manorama M Khare, Pavan Mukherjee, Augustine C Frankline
The purpose of this paper was to identify the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on primary care for the urban poor in India. Researchers investigated the workload capacity of the Low Cost Effective Care Unit (LCECU) of Christian Medical College, Vellore (CMC), which has a network of CVs, CHWs, an outreach nurse, social workers and doctors who operate clinics in six poorer areas of Vellore. Results uncovered that this network adapted quickly, responding to the lockdown during the first wave and ensuring ongoing primary care for patients with noncommunicable diseases. During the second wave, the team developed a system in collaboration with other CMC departments to provide home-based care for patients with COVID. These findings highlight the importance of primary care-based rapid response interventions in disaster management, emphasizing the effectiveness of utilizing pre-existing networks and familiarities between primary care teams, CHWs, CVs, and the community.
Link: Primary care for the urban poor in India during the pandemic: Uninterrupted management of non-communicable diseases and home-based care of patients with COVID-19 infection
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Resource Topic: COVID-19, Disaster response, Primary Health Care, Urban communities
Resource Type: Research
Year: 2023
Region: Asia
Country: India
Publisher May Restrict Access: No
