Health
Reliance Foundation works towards enhancing access to quality and affordable healthcare in India. The Foundation’s ‘Health for All’ motto and integrated healthcare model provides continuum of care to the most vulnerable sections of society through a network of healthcare delivery mechanisms ranging from preventive and primary care to tertiary care.
Reliance Foundation is committed to enhancing the healthcare ecosystem through community health initiatives, health outreach to vulnerable communities, while making primary, secondary and tertiary quality healthcare services accessible to all.
These services are complemented by quaternary care at the Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre.
Through its health initiatives and services, Reliance Foundation has touched the lives of over 7.8 million people since inception.
Reliance Foundation’s major programmes under the “Health for All” initiatives include:
Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre
Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital is a 345 bedded Quaternary care Hospital located in South Mumbai. The hospital’s mission is “To deliver safe, affordable & quality healthcare by using international evidence -based practices through highly skilled healthcare professionals, well trained staff and advanced technology, to all sections of society”.
The Hospital has a vision “to bring a paradigm shift in the way the Healthcare is delivered in India in step with the global best practices and emerge as a world class healthcare facility”. The hospital is JCI (Joint International Commission) and NABH accredited which is the highest standard for Quality Care & Patient Safety. Also, it is the Largest Gold Certified Green Hospital in Mumbai: National and International Green Building Conformance.
Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital is a technologically-advanced institution designed to international standards and the most stringent criteria in infrastructure, medical care, fire-safety norms and environmental guidelines. This is because every element that comprises the Hospital’s making, from the premises, to the processes, to its professionals, contributes to the overriding principle: Respect for Life.
The hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art medical technology and has the finest professionals in medicine providing world-class care. From its physical design to its daily functioning, Sir H. N. Reliance Foundation Hospital is providing ‘Patient and Family Centric’ clinical care across the hospital which is standardised and transcends across all socio-economic status. For more information please visit www.rfhospital.org.
Reliance Foundation Drishti
Reliance Foundation has helped improve and restore the vision of people from underprivileged segments of society through its Drishti programme.
In partnership with the National Association for the Blind (NAB), Aravind Eye Care and Sankara Eye Foundation, Reliance Foundation Drishti has supported 21,200+ corneal transplants since inception in 2003, bringing light into the lives of thousands of visually impaired underprivileged under the leadership of Founder Mrs. Nita Ambani.
Reliance Foundation Drishti, in association with the National Association for the Blind (NAB), supports the visually impaired through several initiatives.
Reliance Foundation Drishti publishes India’s only fortnightly international Braille newspaper in Hindi in association with the NAB, reaching over 24,000 visually impaired readers across India and 15 other countries. On World Braille Day on January 4 every year, Reliance Foundation Drishti also distributes a Braille table calendar in Hindi to readers.
In order to increase awareness about the importance of eye donation, the programme has been conducting Reliance Drishti Essay Competitions annually since 2008 and Reliance Drishti Art Competitions yearly since 2004.
Attention is also devoted to eye care. Since inception, 1.7+ lakh consultations have been conducted, with 15,900+ people being provided with spectacles free of cost after detection of refractive error.
Health Outreach Programme
The Reliance Foundation Health Outreach Programme provides medical care through Mobile Medical Units (MMUs), Static Medical Units (SMUs), Community Health Centres (CHCs) and several health camps at selected locations across Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.
Cumulatively, over 8.1 million consultations have benefitted vulnerable patients through various health initiatives. Numerous health camps provide specialised care for HIV/AIDS, TB, mother and child health as well as various non-communicable diseases like diabetes, hypertension, cardiac ailments, bone and joint disorders, ophthalmic conditions among others.
Fully-equipped Mobile Medical Units (MMUs) with state-of-the-art technology, including cloud-based software are incorporated to store patient information and plan programs for the communities. MMUs provide free of cost necessary healthcare services at the doorstep of beneficiaries through periodic visits. They further address beneficiary requirements with proper consultations and adequate medical care facilities MMUs operating across plant locations were also instrumental in providing vital care during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic in rural India.
Static Medical Units (SMUs) provide diagnostic and consultation services focusing on chronic diseases like hypertension and diabetes. Professionally trained MBBS doctors, nurses and social workers cater to the primary medical care needs of the patients.
Reliance Foundation is committed to improving support and care for people living with HIV through testing, treatment and nutritional programmes, and the hospitals in Lodhivali, Jamnagar and Hazira offer free treatment and support to 8,000+ people with HIV, including children. Several long-running initiatives to lower malnutrition and create awareness on good nutrition are also supported by engaging communities around plant locations.
Providing Access to Healthcare Services
Motikhavdi Medical Centre is a model and modern village public health centre at Motikhavdi village, Jamnagar. This Community Medical Centre has been providing comprehensive medical services free of cost since its inception in1995. It operates round-the-clock and is equipped with doctors and para-medics, medicine counter, male and female wards for day care procedures.
Community Care Center & Reliance AIDS Care Hospital is the only private indoor facility for HIV/AIDS patients in Gujarat and provides in-patient services free of cost. The centre at Mora village, Hazira, provide preventive, diagnostic and curative services to HIV/AIDS patients since its inception in 2004. The Centre has a fully-functional 28-bed hospital for HIV/AIDS patients.
Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital, Lodhivali is a 82-bed state-of-the-art hospital that caters to an industrial and rural population in the Raigad district of Maharashtra. It provides free outpatient and subsidised inpatient treatment for the needy and poor patients as well as for senior citizens. It also provides free treatment to trauma victims from the economically weaker section of the society affected due to highway accidents. The hospital, the only such comprehensive health care institution in the region, has proved its worth by saving numerous lives of vehicular and industrial accident victims. It also caters to HIV/AIDS patients through an ART centre.
Reliance Foundation, in partnership with Dr. Abaji Thatte Sewa Aur Anusandhan Sanstha, has established state-of-the-art facilities for diagnosis, prevention and treatment of cancer in Nagpur. A total of 20% beds in the hospital are reserved for economically disadvantaged patients who they are treated free of cost. In order to reduce the burden of cancer and to provide preventive services at the grassroots level, Reliance Foundation supported the Rajasthan Medicare Relief Society with a preventive oncology van.
In partnership with Indian Head Injury Foundation, Reliance Foundation supports underprivileged victims of neuro trauma, targeting two wheeler riders, pillion riders and children along with bus and taxi drivers, pedestrians and cyclists in the age group of 12-45 years.
Reliance is also working with several blood banks such as the Indian Red Cross Society, Indian Medical Association, Rotary Blood Bank, Surat Raktadan Kendra and Research, Rotary Noida Research and the Voluntary Health Services across the country. In addition, free health check-up camps are organised for thalassemia patients, and felicitation programmes are conducted to motivate people for voluntary donation.
To reduce the response time of public healthcare institutions during emergencies, ambulances with advanced support facilities have been provided to the relevant municipalities in Dwarka and Khambhaliya through the Jamnagar plant, to the Suvali Primary Care Centre (PHC) in Hazira, and to the district police in Shahdol.
ASMAN – Project Alliance for Saving Mothers and Newborns
In 2015, Reliance Foundation partnered with Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, MSD India, Tata Trusts and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to spearhead Project Alliance for Saving Mothers and Newborns (ASMAN), a first-of-its-kind in India. The project’s aim was to accelerate reduction in neonatal and maternal mortality by improving quality of care provided to mothers and newborns, from the time of admission to the time of discharge – a duration in which the risk of mortality is high.
Project ASMAN used an innovative approach by leveraging multiple technology-based healthcare innovations in the states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh to strengthen the capacity of healthcare providers to ensure safe health outcomes for mothers and newborns.
Overall the project aimed for technology enabled reduction in preventable maternal and neo natal deaths in selected health facilities across 8 districts in the two states of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Over 7.5 lakhs mothers and newborns were reached through 81 government health facilities since the inception of the programme in 2015. During April 2018 to June 2021, 433,100 cases were registered and 165,000 (38%) high-risk cases were detected through the ASMAN app.
ASMAN won Special Jury Mention Award under the Excellence in Social Initiative category during the annual Healthcare Excellence Awards of the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry in September 2020. To learn more about the ASMAN project and read the project report, click here.
The following articles have been published on the project:
Health System Quality Improvement Programme in Warangal District, Telangana
Reliance Foundation implemented a health system quality improvement programme in Warangal district, Telangana for three years (January 2016 to December 2018). Technical support was provided to a few primary and secondary health facilities, and Mahatma Gandhi Medical Hospital at the tertiary level. At the tertiary care level, the intervention was focussed on raising standards of healthcare delivery through process standardization using NABH guidelines, capacity building of senior staff through techno-managerial trainings and facilitate promotion of electronic hospital information management system for registration of outpatients and management of inpatient records. On the other hand, at primary and secondary care level, support was provided for strengthening the facilities to implement protocols/standards and to improve the quality of healthcare during intrapartum and postpartum period for the mothers and the new-born by providing trainings to the staff nurses and doctors. At the tertiary level, through series of trainings and process documentation, Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital increased their score from 1.47 to 7.38 using NABH methodology. In addition, the efforts of Reliance Foundation resulted in accessing additional resources from government to enhance the health quality systems. In primary and secondary health facilities, training on PHC management and MNH skills, has vastly improved the health services in these facilities. The assessments carried out by the programme saw significant improvement in facility and maternal & neonatal standards from 9% to 53% at the end of the project whereas the standards of Maternal and Neonatal Health improved from 15% to 75%.
COVID-19 Response
Setting up health infrastructure support during the COVID-19 pandemic
To help meet the sudden demand for specialised healthcare facilities during COVID-19, Reliance Foundation set up medical, quarantine and intensive care facilities, providing for over 2,000 COVID-19 hospital beds across different locations in India.
Reliance Foundation demonstrated its commitment and capacity to rise up to the situation during the response to the COVID-19 crisis setting up the first, COVID-19 dedicated hospital in India in just two weeks in March 2020, in collaboration with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporate (BMC).
The Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital and Research Centre (RFH) set up special medical facilities and quarantine services for patients form the safety of their home.
In response to the second wave, Reliance Foundation scaled up its support. This included a dedicated COVID-19 care facility at the National Sports Club of India, Worli, Mumbai, managed by the Sir H.N. Reliance Foundation Hospital, and Gujarat’s first paediatric COVID-19 hospital at Jamnagar. All facilities were set up in record time keeping the urgency of the prevailing situation in mind.
Reliance Foundation’s Mobile Medical Units continued to provide medical assistance to the rural communities in the times of COVID-19 and also helped raise awareness about precautionary measures like social distancing, wearing masks and hand washing in surrounding villages.
Ensuring uninterrupted emergency services
To ensure uninterrupted emergency services, Reliance Foundation provided free fuel to government notified vehicles and ambulances to ease the transportation of COVID-19 patients. Reliance Foundation provided over 27 lakh litres (2.7 million litres) of free fuel, supporting 70,000+ ambulances across 21 states and 3 Union Territories. The mission to distribute free fuel for ambulances across 21 states was taken up between May and September 2021 during the second COVID wave, providing a much needed boost to emergency response services.
Mission COVID Suraksha
To raise awareness on prevention and safety, Mission COVID Suraksha focused on the distribution of 1.4 crore masks across India to frontline warriors and communities across 26 states and Union Territories, along with raising awareness on the importance of COVID-safe behaviour. Reliance Foundation distributed masks to police personnel, municipal workers and vulnerable communities with high risk of exposure. A multi-lingual booklet, distributed with the mask, informed users about proper ways to wear it along with mask hygiene.
In addition, over 9.5 lakh (0.95 million) sanitisers, 5+ lakh (0.5+ million) ORS packets and 2+ lakh (0.2+ million) gloves were distributed across 20 states and Union Territories.
Free COVID consultation
Reliance Foundation also launched a free COVID consultation initiative that was rolled out through the Jio Health Hub. This was to enable people to access medical advice from the convenience of their homes.
Mission Vaccine Suraksha
40+ lakh Vaccination doses provided free of cost by Reliance to support the nation in its vaccination mission
To boost the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination drive, Reliance also launched Mission Vaccine Suraksha in April 2021, as a mark of commitment to protect the larger community. Mission Vaccine Suraksha enabled free COVID-19 vaccination across the country, covering communities, employees and families across the country. Vaccine doses were also provided through outreach efforts to vulnerable communities in different locations.
Reliance collaborated with local authorities and governments through its Mission Vaccine Suraksha initiative under the overall ‘We Care’ umbrella. This included free vaccination doses provided to the governments of Kerala, Gujarat, Rajasthan, and Maharashtra besides various other national and regional organisations to speed up the vaccination drive.
Mission Vaccine Suraksha aimed to reach every last mile resident, including people with disabilities, the elderly, homeless and those in far-flung locations, with free COVID-19 vaccination. This initiative continues as vaccination is still the only available protection from coronavirus, thus contributing towards the country’s vaccination mission. Reliance Foundation also conducted vaccination drives across India such as in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and Kerala, among other states. These drives supported several vulnerable groups in accessing COVID-19 vaccination.
To learn more about our COVID-19 response initiatives, click here.