In a first, a mosque in Hyderabad has opened its doors for health services. Located at NS Kunta, Masjid-e-Ishaq will facilitate as a community health centre serving about 1.5 lakh people, mostly the poor.
It will provide information and guidance for admission to 30-plus government hospitals. It will also serve as a referral link for health services for people across religious lines.
The mosque committee collaborated with a city-based NGO Helping Hand Foundation (HHF) to open a health centre at the mosque premises earlier this month.
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Besides NS Kunta, residents of Achireddy Nagar, Vatapally, Chasma, Mustafanagar, Pahadi Guntal Shah Baba, Tekri Biryani Shah, Teegal Kunta, Jahanuma, Tadbun and Fatimangar will also benefit from the health centre.
¡°The community health centre at the mosque will serve as a referral link to about 30 state-run hospitals providing primary to tertiary health care,¡± said HHF managing trustee Mujtaba Hasan Askari.
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He said with abysmally low attendance at government hospitals from slums, the mosque will work towards increasing footfall of economically backward sections in state hospitals by way of facilitation.
¡°It will assure patients of prompt, ethical and free treatment with a network of 100 volunteers,¡± Askari added.
The centre will also provide primary health care including free diagnostics, vitals, performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, wound management, maternal care and physiotherapy, added Askari.
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Maulana Faiq Khan, the Khatib of the Majid-e-Ishaq, said the mosque will also hold health education programmes for pregnant women, ensure 100% vaccination compliance for children in the area, and distribute nutrition kits to malnourished pregnant women.
It will also conduct periodic screening for both lifestyle diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cancer, kidney diseases, and infectious diseases like dengue and tuberculosis.