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Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, April 18
From Thursday onwards, don’t be surprised if you see college students offering help to poor and hapless patients visiting the PGI here. For a group of 360 National Service Scheme (NSS) volunteers from 10 city colleges and Panjab University (PU) would work in two shifts from 8 am to 12 noon and 12 noon to 4 pm at the new OPD Block in the PGI under the project ‘Saarthi’.
A brainchild of UT Deputy Commissioner Ajit Balaji Joshi, this another first-of-its-kind initiative is supported by the State NSS Cell, the UT Department of Education, the Indian Red Cross Society, the PU and the PGI.
The volunteer support group formed for the purpose would offer all kinds of help, guidance and support to needy patients and their attendants visiting the new OPD Block of the PGI. From helping, guiding and supporting them to reach the right department for treatment, they would also provide physical help by lifting patients, moving their trolleys/ wheelchairs in the case of need.
“In this way, we will be engaging youth in community work to make them community-oriented human beings,” said Joshi, who also heads the UT Red Cross Society.
A day before the formal launch of the project, an orientation programme was held for the volunteers at the Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, on Wednesday. All 360 NSS volunteers from 10 city colleges and the PU, selected for the project, were imparted orientation training in first aid, patient dealing and emergency situation handling. They were given guidance diaries, badges and I-cards.
Need for the project
The PGI is a tertiary care hospital that caters to patients from almost all states of North India and other far-flung areas. People from different socio-economic status and literacy levels visit the institution for treatment. They are generally lost within the hospital, not knowing where to go and which department to visit for their problems. At times, patients are bedridden and have only one or even no caregiver accompanying them in the hospital for treatment. Such caregivers face lot of difficulties in transporting their patient from one department to another.
HOW IT WILL WORK: A patient help desk under the ‘Saarthi’ project has been set up at the new OPD Block, which will start working from Thursday. NSS volunteers will work in two shifts from 8 am to 12 noon and 12 noon To 4 pm.
The team
As many as 360 NSS volunteers from the Dev Samaj College of Education, Sector 36, the PGGCG-11, the MCM DAV College-36, the DAV College-10, the PGGCG-42, the PGGCG-46, the GGDSD College-32, the SGGS College-26, the CCET-26, the GCCBA-50 and the PU campus comprise the volunteer support group. The group would be supported by Bikram Rana, state liaison officer, NSS; Navdeep Sharma, NSS coordinator, PU; Mini Arora, medical officer, UT Red Cross Society; Raman Sharma, assistant professor, PGI; Madhu, assistant programme adviser, NSS Regional Directorate, and Sushil Tank from the UT Red Cross Society.
What it aims at
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