Report by OD bureau; Bhubaneswar: Extending healthcare services to people living in the periphery of its operational areas has always been a priority in Tata Steel's periphery development and Corporate Social Responsibility plan.

With hospitals that have been set up in the rural areas and by introducing mobile healthcare units and organising health camps, Tata Steel’s healthcare services reaches out to around 4 lakh people in the villages of Odisha every year.

The Company’s healthcare services are rendered through three hospitals located in Joda, Sukinda and Belpahar and dispensaries at Bamnipal, Bileipada and Gobarghati. Besides, mobile health clinics have been introduced in different parts of the State to provide healthcare facilities to the people living in remote areas.

In addition, Tata Steel has facilitated infrastructure for various public healthcare facilities, like the construction of an ICU in Bolangir and Community Health Centers at Bari and Kuhika and upgradation of infrastructure at Keonjhar district hospital.

Tata Steel also partnered with the leading international cleft care NGO Operation Smile to provide free corrective surgeries to those born with cleft lip, cleft palate and other facial deformities in Odisha. With the support of Tata Steel and Sir Dorab Tata Trust & Allied Trusts, Operation Smile organised its first-ever International Cleft Care Mission in Bhubaneswar from April 19 to 26, 2012.

Tata Steel Hospital at Joda in Keonjhar district is a fully-equipped hospital with specialist doctors -- in Paediatrics, Gynaecology, Medicine, Ophthalmology, Surgery, Orthopaedics, Anaesthesia and ENT -- Operation Theatre, Blood Bank and facilities for Ultrasonography, bio-pathos investigations, ECG and X-Ray, among others. Importantly, this is the only hospital in the district that is equipped with a state-of-the-art Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and facility for Laparoscopy.

Post-expansion, the Hospital has 75 beds and 6 cabins which cater to the healthcare needs of the local people. A new surgical ward and a new Paediatric ward have also been added to the existing facility.

The 50-bedded Hospital at Belpahar in Jharsuguda district has the required facilities to treat various diseases. Similarly, in Sukinda, where the Company has its presence, Tata Steel has set up a 30-bedded hospital. This caters to the healthcare requirements of the local population there.

At Kalinganagar in Jajpur district, where the Company is setting up a 6 million tonnes per annum integrated steel plant, a modern dispensary has been set up at Gobarghati to cater to the healthcare requirements of the locals including the relocated families of the Kalinganagar project.

Besides, the Company has set up dispensaries at Bamnipal, where Tata Steel’s Ferro Alloys Plant is located, and at Bileipada near Joda in Keonjhar district.

As part of its social commitment, Tata Steel is implementing Project SATHI for treatment of people afflicted with HIV/AIDS. The ‘Sathi Community Care Centre’ is located at Bahadurpeta village in Ganjam, one of the most vulnerable districts in India as far as AIDS affliction is concerned.

This was initiated in collaboration with the Odisha State AIDS Control Society, Bhubneshwar, in December 2006. From June 2008, Tata Steel Rural Development Society, in collaboration with the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, is running the Centre.

More than 2,200 HIV/AIDS patients have been treated at this Centre. Tata Steel is the only corporate to take up such an initiative. Apart from distribution of medicated mosquito nets in malaria prone areas, the Company has been active in the Malaria Eradication Awareness programme in the State.