KC Patty CF Primary Health Center

KCPatty PHC provides primary health care to 7000 members of the Adivasi community living in isolated villages in the lower Kodaikanal hills (1500m height) about 60km by road East of Kodaikanal in Tamil Nadu. There are a total of 15,000 people in the target area and other community members also use our services but the focus is on Adivasi members.

We focus on primary health care, and not on providing hospital care.

2 base health centers hold OPDs in the mornings. Afternoons are used to visit villages in a systematic way, using robust recall systems of patients that helps those with chronic illnesses to take essential ongoing treatment and ensures that those who do not come to the health center are not neglected. Patients are seen first by health workers from their own community who make them feel at home and do an initial clinical assessment. Many villages have voluntary health workers who provide basic care in villages. This strong team-work permits holistic patient centred care through a strong emphasis on health education and transfer of information. We use modern rational protocols to markedly reduce health care costs and ensure that when patients need referral, essential investigations are done first and there is advocacy with specialists on patient behalf. Preventive care is integrated with curative interventions at every opportunity.

Teaching of family medicine to registrars is emphasised and helps maintain standards. Simple investigations can be done in the PHC and complex tests sent to Christian Fellowship Hospital, Oddanchatram. Patients pay what they can and subsidies are given whenever possible.  The health center is not self-sustaining with the senior family physicians working voluntarily. We do not receive foreign or local funding. 70% of our yearly expenditure is met from patient payment. 10% of the deficit is met by the our referral hospital the Christian Fellowship Hospital in Oddanchatram meeting some staff salaries. The two family physicians work voluntarily without salary and about 8% is met by the contributions from a few close family and friends to make ends meet. There is scope to make the health center self-sustaining by those interested in long term commitment. We are a Christian health center but respect all faiths and staff are from multiple religious backgrounds who are willing to work in a Christian health center.

We welcome Tamil speaking doctors volunteering to work 2 x1-2 month periods a year to enable the current family physicians to take breaks. A permanent family physician or a couple committed to taking over the work in the coming years committed to the principles of family medicine and teamwork are needed. They will be supported to gradually take over responsibilities from the current retiring age family physicians (who will continue to work part time as required), enabling the new doctors to have breaks as needed. Those interested in making that commitment are welcome to make inquiries.