Metropolis and Merrygold Health Network to provide Maternal and Child Health Care in UP

Metropolis Health Services will now provide quality testing services to patients of Merrygold Health Network in Uttar Pradesh. UP has the one of highest maternal mortality ratio of 517 per 1, 00,000 live births (SRS 2005- 2006) and Infant Mortality rate of 71 per 1000 live births (SRS 2007). The main cause of this situation is poor antenatal care (44% received ante natal care) and low coverage of institutional delivery (22%) in the State (source: NFHS III).

HLFPPT has committed to develop the Merrygold Health Network with support of Govt. of UP and SIFPSA (State Innovations in Family Planning Services Project Agency) in the entire State. The Merrygold Health Network is an example of public private partnership working on the principles of franchising for development of network across all 70 districts of Uttar Pradesh. The project will support the Government of UP’s and GOI ‘s efforts in reducing maternal, new born and infant deaths by increasing antenatal care, institutional deliveries and new born care, post natal and family planning services to women in rural and semi urban population.

In the first phase of the project, Metropolis will open one Lab in HLFPPT-owned Hospital and the other lab will be commissioned in a Franchised Hospital. The first Metropolis Laboratory has been commissioned in HLFPPT-owned Merrygold Hospital, Agra. Samples of patients requiring specialized testing will be sent to the referral laboratories of Metropolis Health Services Laboratory through their own effective and efficient systems. The patients will see the reports on the website or can collect the reports from Merrygold hospital.

Speaking on this new partnership, Dr. Velu, Managing Director, Metropolis Health Services said, “It is our privilege to partner with HLFPPT; we are looking forward to provide the best of services and technologies to the underserved. The main objective of this partnership is to create a sustainable public private partnership in health care for the lower middle class and the underserved population. Merrygold health network will create grass-root level networking to provide quality reproductive and child health services at subsidized cost per fixed prices. We will follow the same quality standards to ensure consistency in care. Through this set up we wish to establish our network across the state and offer a comprehensive range of quality tests and latest technology to everyone.”

Elaborating on the project, Dr Vasanthi Krishnan, CEO, Hindustan Latex Family Planning Promotion Trust, said, “The network of franchised hospitals and health clinics will be developed under the name of ‘Merrygold Network’ and each level has been branded with specific name and will provide different level of quality health care . At district level these hospitals/ health clinics will be named as Merrygold and will provide maternal child health services including emergency obstetrics facility. Block /sub divisional hospitals /clinics named Merry silver will provide essential obstetric care, family planning services, and immunization services. These hospitals/clinics are linked with district Merrygold network to refer complicated cases from these centers. Village level network named as Merry Tarang will provide health counseling, condoms, oral contraceptives, sanitary napkins, oral rehydration salts and Folic Acid Tablets to community.”

At present, HLFPPT has established their network in 18 district level Merrygold hospitals and 64 Merrysilver hospitals/health clinics in 11 districts i.e. Agra, Kanpur, Badaun, Lucknow, Barabanki, Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Mathura Bareilly & Azamgargh. Similarly 1350 members like ASHA, AWW, chemist, community leaders have been associated with Merry Tarang health network. All franchises will follow the same quality standards to ensure consistency in care. The hospitals that are part of the franchising network will provide the same set of services, have a similar look, and follow the same branding for easy identifiable. In next two years, franchised hospitals/clinics will be operationalized in more districts in the state of UP.

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