Working towards a responsive health care system based on the needs of patients, families and communities
Contributing to community health and well-being is important to us. We are committed to providing to the targeted communities comprehensive support through response, recovery, and rehabilitation efforts. Our focus lies in ensuring equitable access to healthcare services, to the targeted communities with particular emphasis on palliative care, respiratory healthcare and support for other medical interventions.
Cipla's manufacturing units, depots and other project sites across geographies actively participate in these initiatives to address the healthcare needs of vulnerable communities in their vicinity, with special emphasis on children, women and the elderly.
Palliative care refers to specialised medical care that runs alongside curative care, for persons with serious illnesses. Palliative care recognises that the needs of individuals with a serious illness are not just confined to the disease, but extend to the physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs of the patients as well as their families. Palliative care is provided by a specially trained team of doctors, nurses, social workers and other specialists to provide the best possible quality of life at every stage of the serious illness.
Our strategy to increase access to palliative care focuses on bringing direct care within reach of patients and their families, supporting training initiatives and increasing awareness about palliative care.
The Cipla Palliative Care & Training Centre (CPC) in Pune was established in 1997 to respond to the needs of cancer patients and their families in and around Pune.
CPC services aim to improve the health and well-being of patients and caregivers. The Centre’s team supports cancer patients and caregivers by creating care plans to address pain, symptoms, and their emotional and spiritual concerns. This support helps improve overall well-being.
CPC further strengthened its services to ensure better quality of care by increasing monitoring of patient pain levels, enhancing the frequency of home visits, and strengthening coordination between caregivers and treating physicians. CPC continued to provide in – patient, home – based, and outpatient services at its centre and through it's partner hospital catering to the cancer patient in Pune.
During FY 2022-23, CPC services included:
Integrating palliative care in public health: We supported Palliative care teams in Jodhpur, Goa as well as partnered with Tata Memorial Hospital in Mumbai, Navi Mumbai and Varanasi to ensure comprehensive care for patient , right from the time of diagnosis.
Paediatric Palliative Care: Our partners expanded their services for children, introducing home care services, a first in Mumbai, and additional outpatient clinics for Government hospitals in Chennai and Goa, also a first for both locations.
37,500+ Patients served across 20 cities, through 28 partners who provided palliative services including in -patient, outpatient and home – based care.
"The map used here, is for general illustration only, not indicative of political boundaries and not be used for reference purposes."
The Kevat programme was started in 2018 by Tata Memorial Centre (TMC) in collaboration with the Tata Institute of Social Sciences. The programme endeavours to create a taskforce, the ‘Kevats’, who are trained to handhold cancer patients and help them navigate the cancer continuum from diagnosis, treatment, cure to survival. In addition, they extend special palliative care services, thereby offering seamless care to patients with cancer as well as to survivors. It is the first and the only training programme for Patient Navigation in Oncology in India.
This year, Cipla Foundation continued to support the efforts of TMC to train 10 Kevats as well as train the first batch of 30 Kevat assistants.
The Kevats have completed their Post Graduate Diploma and are now working in different cancer hospitals across the country. Their training has enabled them to effectively hand hold patients and families, resulting in improved compliance to cancer treatment and linkages to services that provide holistic end-to-end support. The Kevat assistants work with the Kevats to support families complete their documentation, address language barriers faced by patients and give information to patients and families on various issues including infection control measures.
On an average each Kevat supports 15+ patients a day, annually catering to the needs of 3600+ patients
The ‘Saath Saath’ helpline (1800-202-7777) is a collaborative effort of 25+ leading palliative care organisations, including Cipla Palliative Care & Training Centre, with a shared vision to provide enhanced and equitable access to palliative care.
As of FY 2022-23, 2900+ calls have been received, and 700+ patients have been referred to partner organisations across the country.
Pulmonary Rehabilitation Centres
Pulmonary rehabilitation is a programme of education and exercise that helps manage breathing problems, increases stamina and decreases breathlessness in patients with Chronic Respiratory illnesses. It has been advocated as an essential component of treatment in Chronic Respiratory Disorders (COPD). Pulmonary Rehabilitation Centres (PRC) projects were first initiated by Cipla Foundation in 2021 with the aim to provide free-of-cost Pulmonary Rehabilitation services to both post COVID as well as COPD patients. The programme provides dedicated cardiopulmonary, physiotherapy, nutritional guidance as well as psychosocial support. Cipla Foundation supports five such centres in public and charitable hospitals in Jaipur, Mumbai, Kolkata, Lucknow and Pune.
1,300+ patients have benefited from these services.
A ‘Public System Partnership’ project, in collaboration with our partner SNEHA, endeavours to address issues of maternal morbidity and mortality, low birth weight babies (LBW), and access to health facilities across seven Municipal Corporations of Mumbai.
These include:
Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation , Thane Municipal Corporation , Vasai Virar City Municipal Corporation , Mira Bhayander Municipal Corporation, Ulhasnagar Municipal Corporation, Kalyan Dombivli Municipal Corporation and Bhiwandi Nizampur City Municipal Corporation.
Case Study: Care all the way
24-year-old Dia visited her maternal home during the 8th month of her pregnancy. During regular community visits, the Mahila Aarogya Samiti (MAS) member observed that Dia was experiencing swelling all over her body and had not consulted a doctor out of fear. The MAS member, along with SNEHA staff and the community-based ASHA visited her home and convinced her to take timely treatment. She was referred to the nearest health facility for an antenatal care check-up, where she was diagnosed with high blood pressure.
The medical officer at the health facility prescribed her suitable medications along with lifestyle modifications. The MAS member explained to her the importance of nutrition, ANC care, breastfeeding and family planning and her condition was continuously followed up for 2 months. She went on to have a normal delivery in due time which may otherwise have had fatal complications.
The project has focused intensively on improving the health indicators of mothers and new-borns by empowering communities and strengthening existing health systems. The activities undertaken under these projects and their associated outputs include:
Strengthening & streamlining maternal referral linkages:
Post programme roll out, all participating Seven municipal corporations have been adhering to proper documentation of maternal referrals. This has enabled the receiving health facility to get on-time updates about the referred cases and plan for further line of treatment. As a result, 86% of cases have been referred with complete referral documentation
Strengthening & streamlining primary healthcare components:
The programme team has ensured the availability of nine core services at the health posts through rigorous advocacy and coordination with the municipal corporations
As a result, 84% of the health posts are providing 9 core services that are important for better mother and child health outcomes while the rest 15 health posts provide 6 to 8 core services regularly.
As part of Cipla Foundation’s community doorstep health program, we support operations of Mobile Healthcare Units (MHUs) through HelpAge India which provide high quality primary health care services to patients in remote locations. With a medical doctor, a pharmacist, and stock of essential medicines, MHUs extend regular free-of-cost out-patient services across 100+ villages in 4 states.
In addition, we also extended support to registered TB patients who are under treatment and have registered / notified themselves on the NIKSHAY portal. 130+ nutritional kits were provided to TB patients in Himachal Pradesh and Maharashtra through HelpAge India and under Government of India’s Nikshay Poshan Yojna.
Cipla Foundation takes forward Cipla’s legacy by providing comprehensive care to patients living with Thalassemia. We provide support for medication, blood transfusion and Bone Marrow Transplants (BMTs) for children from low-income families that would otherwise have not have been accessible to them.
Through seven Early Childhood Development Centres (ECDs) located in disadvantaged communities, we provided high quality infrastructure to create a conducive environment for growth of children, including quality care, nutrition, and education. These ECDs supported 600+ children and created 50+ employment opportunities in the local communities.
54,000+ Patients served under Sha’p Left Nurse Surgeries.
5,50,000+Medicine parcels delivered through 51 pickup points, benefitting 2,30,000 people. The project also provided direct employment opportunities to 130+ people,
In partnership with Operation Smile, the ‘Miles for Smiles’ initiative raised funds to facilitate 204 life-changing cleft and corrective lip surgeries.
