NH launches mobile cardiac care drive

Bengaluru: In a bid to make cardiovascular care accessible for all, Narayana Health on Thursday launched Healthcare on Wheels, an initiative wherein mobile screening vehicles will provide complete and advanced heart screening to the needy. “We will have two vehicles for screening provided by Volvo and Shankaranarayana Constructions Pvt Ltd. Narayana Health will manage the screenings. The services we offer include ESG, ultrasound, and blood screening, among others. Screenings will be done all over the state, free of cost,” Dr Devi Shetty, founder and chairman of Narayana Health told TOI. The equipment cost around Rs 3 crore. “The vehicles may be parked outside government hospitals. If they don’t have Xray machine or echo machine, they can send the patients to us,” he added.Patients detected with heart problems will be referred for consultation. “Every other day, you hear that someone collapsed and that it was a sudden heart attack. There is nothing like a sudden heart attack. A patient who had a sudden heart attack could have saved his life if he had undergone an echocardiogram, ECG and a CT scan. One can prevent a sudden heart attack. Such patients have structural problems in the heart before it stops. A normal heart can’t stop,” said Dr Shetty.Dr Shetty suggested every Indian past the age of 40 must undergo preventive health checkups. “They should know whether they are diabetic, hypertensive. All the data should be in their phone. That can potentially save lives.” In his practice, a good number of time it’s not the young son bringing in the aged father for a bypass surgery. “It is the other way round. So, there’s a huge shift in the patient profile,” he said.