National
Mobile Hospital Programme
Smile on Wheels is a national level mobile hospital programme from Smile Foundation, catering to the underprivileged children and women in remote rural areas and urban slums.
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Shri Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Hon'ble Chief Minister of Haryana [second from left] being appraised of Smile on Wheels programme at his Chandigarh office by Mr. Naresh Chaudhary, COO of Smile Foundation [first from left].
Giving them company are [from right to left] Ms. Manju Singh, Chief Manager (Special Projects, Smile Foundation), Fr. Sebastian Jose SDB, Executive Director of Don Bosco Navjeevan, and Smt. Geeta Bhukkal, MLA, Kalayat.
Smile Foundation manages the technical operations of all Smile on Wheels projects at national level, from its Palwal control centre on Delhi-Agra Highway in Haryana. |
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Working Model:
Smile on Wheels operates by taking well-equipped medical van along with specialized doctors, nurses, medical staff, equipments and medicines to the identified villages / slums in a systematic manner.
Smile on Wheels vans cover the rural or slum areas in the vicinity where either no governmental health care facilities exist or the same is not sufficient for the population. Each unit is covering the vicinity of up to 25 kms from its centre and visiting 2-3 villages a day on a regular basis.
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The mobile hospitals offer preventive, promotive and curative medical expertise to the needy children and women in remote rural areas and urban slums.
In deserving and life-saving cases, it functions like a referral clinic and ambulance.
Each van is stationed in an urban centre usually with a static hospital, which acts like a referral medical centre. The team also carry out awareness activities on health and hygiene in order to achieve health seeking behaviour. |
Phase – I > Launched in June 19, 2006
Chief Minister of the Govt. of NCT of Delhi, Mrs. Sheila Dikshit flagged off the five mobile hospitals under Smile on Wheels from the Delhi Secretariat.
Vehicle make: Tempo Traveller / Force Motors
Five vans under the first phase of Smile on Wheels has been reaching out to 1.5 lakh beneficiaries in a population area of 7.5 lakhs covering 249 identified villages across five Indian states. These are Orissa, Chhattisgarh, Uttarakhand, West Bengal and Maharasthra.
Stations: Cuttack (Orissa), Bhilai (Chhattisgarh), Roorkee (Uttarakhand), Kolkata (West Bengal) and Talegaon (Maharasthra).
Phase – I I > Launched in May 2008
Vehicle make: Ashok Leyland
Two more mobile hospital projects under Smile on Wheels programme would be operational for the slum population of Delhi and Chennai from May 2008.
 
The mobile hospitals in phase – II are one and half time bigger than the hospitals as in Phase – I and are completely air conditioned. These are also equipped with dark rooms, advanced X-Ray machines and a few additional facilities.
Click the below States for a brief.
Stations: Delhi and Chennai
Vision Behind the Programme
Smile Foundation launched the programme as part of its endeavour to introduce healthcare awareness and contemporary healthcare services seeking behaviour among the rural masses and the underprivileged.
Health Services Provided
The services provided are OPD, Ante-natal/post-natal services, identification of difficult pregnancy and referral for institutional care, Immunization - Mother & children, Minor surgery, BP examination, X-ray, ECG, First Aid, Distribution of Iron Folic tablets, Vit-A Prophylaxis, Treatment of mal-nutrient cases, etc.
Children and Women's health is one of Smile's prime concerns. A referral service network for them also needs to be developed. Education and counselling on Health and hygiene, Family planning promotion with emphasis on condom usage for safe sex, spacing methods would also be imparted. The programme would also ensure organising regular health camps, including minor surgical interventions.
Future Outlook
Smile Foundation aims to run a fleet of 30 fully equipped mobile medical vans under Smile on Wheels programme reaching out to around 35-40 lakh beneficiaries in coming five years.
"This is a very ambitious and wonderful project which is going to benefit children and women in the outreach areas. I would congratulate Smile Foundation for that." She added, "Consistent follow-up and concentration in a particular are necessary in health programmes which would hopefully make this programme a success."
Ms. Sheila Dikshit, Chief Minister of Delhi |
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For more details on Smile on Wheels Programme
Please write to:
Manju Singh
Chief Manager(Special Projects)
spl_proj@smilefoundationindia.org
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