Project Area

Entrepreneurship       Unleashed

Doctors cite training as the most important reason for wanting to join the Surya Clinic network. Janani focuses on upgrading the surgical skills of the doctors to deal with reproductive health and general health care, and correspondingly upgrades the non-clinical skills of the Titli Centres to serve as the first-contact point within the villages.

Modern training aides are used extensively. Feedback from trainees regularly helps update the curriculum and methodologies.

Doctors’ training
Janani runs a government approved training centre in Patna, and so far over 1,000 doctors from the public, private and NGO sectors have been trained and certified. Janani accesses medical technologies and clinical techniques that enable provision of crucial services in such low-resource settlings.

Janani develops the curriculum and protocols by using its links with various national and international organizations. It has also entered into partnerships with specialist NGOs and commercial organizations to bring largescale improvement in the surgical and clinical skills of doctors.

A new training component which takes training to the doorsteps of the franchisee doctors has also been introduced. Experienced trainers, whose skills are regularly upgraded by Janani, use client loads generated by Titli Centre referrals to impart skills at the franchisee Surya Clinics. Fees from clients defray the cost of training. Such an approach spares the doctor long absences from their clinics, and gives Janani an opportunity to correct deficiencies in the facilities and in their maintenance at the clinics.

Rural Centres’ training
Super Titli Centres have emerged as the nodal point for training Titli Centres. The rural practitioner and his woman partner at the Super Titli Centres are trained over four days by technical and social trainers with special attention paid to their skills to train others. The focus is on imparting skills to use over-the-counter technologies like pregnancy dipsticks and blood pressure machines, and on counselling. The Super Titli Centres are also trained to organize distribution of products in their areas, and to organize IEC activities in the villages.

All the male and female members of the Titli Centres, after undergoing training at the Super Titli Centres, are brought to a central point where an experienced technical trainer tests and refreshes their skills, and certifies.

Janani continues making efforts to enable Titli Centres to become the first point of contact in their villages. Currently the women members of the Titli Centres do not play a significant role as their skills are not enough to add significantly to the income. A pilot project that will test the opportunities available with the woman member in each Titli Centre has been launched. Insights from the project will provide the basis for bringing this up to scale.

Women members of those Titli Centres located in and around Surya Clinics have been identified. They are trained in simple diagnostic but non-invasive techniques to assess the presence or absence of a disease based on symptoms. The list of diseases encompasses a range of reproductive and general health problems. This training helps them to ascertain the disease, give appropriate information to the client, counsel, and refer to the nearest Surya Clinic. These women have been designated as Surya Health Promoters (SHPs).

SHPs are also trained to do a small survey in their villages to list down the most common ailments (and symptoms) that people report. This is of immense help to design the next training session and also appropriately select the invasive, diagnostic and surgical skills to be imparted to the Surya Clinic Doctor. This will also mean that with increasing range and basket of services provided at Surya Clinics, there will be economic gains for the doctor.

The initial response has been encouraging, but needs to be implemented for some more time to draw meaningful lessons that can impact planning and implementation on a large scale.

Government Protocols

Janani Protocols

Training is the prime reason why doctors join the Surya franchise despite a membership fee and lower charges from clients.

A woman practitioner learning rapid tests from a trainer. Such tests help rural communities initiate early interventions and add to the income of the Titli Centres.

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