Occupational Medicine & Health Affairs
Open Access

Abstract

Statement of the Problem: Health data, disease pattern, health solutions provided are not always properly and collectively recorded for the general mass population. Now, talk about a group who work in a closed factory environment from dawn to desk. Where do they access the services, what health problems face, how can information about them can be available in a manner that aids to building better health solutions both inside and outside the factory environment. Methodology & Theoretical Orientation: A proper information management system to record and track health problems reported and solutions provided is a requirement. This standardized system, available in web-portal form and with all flexibility to add new fields and made user-friendly is something that was required. A system analysis was conducted in the service centers in the vicinity to factories and at the health center inside the factories, and a web-based system developed and installed in the service centers around Gazipur area of Bangladesh. Findings: Disease profile were made available, patients record maintained and this helped the service providers not just to be on track in providing the right service and support to the garment workers, but also as a reminder to proactively knock workers on missed follow-ups, timely diagnosis, and medication. Conclusion & Significance: Availability of health data of the cluster in a single platform is always helpful in providing right treatment, avoiding those situations where the provider is unable to provide the right treatment at the non-availability of patient�s history. But the challenge is when garment workers seek services from unqualified providers and points where the web-based system is not in place. So, a concentrated approach is important to sensitize workers in accessing services from selected service points, so that workers, service points and factories all have the data in a centered platform for better decision-making, and solutions to healthcare.

Biography

Farhtheeba Rahat Khan is a Development Professional with experience backed up by private sector interventions and development sector working realities and challenges. As the Lead of private sector health project, she undertook studies to understand private sector healthcare market dynamics and simultaneously worked on the policy front with Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and its directorates in addressing the supply side issues of healthcare market. She has provided technical assistance for formulation of policy framework, guidelines and accreditation systems in the health training, and emphasized on avenues for women employment in the health sector. Currently, she is the Team Leader for the ‘Working with Women’ project implemented by SNV, where she is facilitating interventions in garment factories, following a gender sensitive and gender-specific approach to ensure equity in healthcare service provision for female garment workers.