A health check-up camp was held on June 19 on the ground floor of a CC Block building. Organised by the Rotary Club of Calcutta New Town Circle, in association with CareGenix Clinic and Diagnostics, the camp provided an array of investigative services, from ECG to cholesterol, deep vein thrombosis rule out to HbA1c for diabetes. There were dental check-up, psychiatric evaluation and gynaecological consultation available as well.
“We treated over 200 patients. In the first hour itself, there were 60 registrations,” said Dr Rahul Anand, specialist in critical care and emergency medicine. “This is the third camp we are holding ever since our clinic opened the day after Bengali New Years’ Day, opposite the convention centre,” said the resident of Uniworld City.
“Ever since the pandemic broke out, people have become wary about going to the doctor for check-up for fear of getting infected. So we thought of bringing some facilities to their doorstep where they can get themselves checked in a comparatively safe environment. Leaflets were sent out to all neighbouring blocks. Another group of people we wanted to reach out to are the construction labourers and caretakers of buildings. The caretakers are sometimes not paid. Perhaps their wives work as domestic helps and son sells vegetables. How can such a family afford paid treatment? The range of tests we are doing for free today could cost as much as Rs 7,000 at a private diagnostic centre. A tea-seller has come to the camp. The neighbouring vegetable-seller asked me if he could come,” said Biman Samaddar, club president and a resident of CC Block. The club, he said, had also held a vaccination camp in the block jointly with AMRI.
Enthused by the camp’s success, the club is now thinking of making such camps a monthly affair. “We might come up with cobranded health cards in association with the clinic for our residents,” Samaddar added.
The camp was inaugurated by Air Chief Marshal (retd) Arup Raha, in presence of retired senior bureaucrat Amit Chaudhuri from CE Block, Eastern Railway principal chief commercial manager Soumitra Majumdar and Indrani Banerjee, the deputy chief commercial manager of South Eastern Railway.