In public consciousness, police stations often resonate with khaki-clad officers, lock-up cells and interrogation rooms. But this police station in north Kerala’a Kannur town is doing things with a difference. While it attends to its policing duties from Monday to Saturday, the station doubles up as a paediatric centre every Sunday from 10 am to 1 pm.
A brain child of circle inspector TK Retnakumar of Kannur town police station, the station is one of the six stations selected to offer paediatricians’ volunteering service to promote overall child welfare and development.
He said the objective of the initiative is to address the dearth of the service of doctors on Sundays to attend to children. The grievances of children will be attended to by the doctors free of cost.
In Kannur town, many hospitals do not have functioning paediatric outpatient wings, especially on Sundays. So if there is an emergency, the parents will have to take their children to casualty and consult the duty doctor there. I conceived the idea of a station-clinic on Sundays as I felt the need to bridge this gap in paediatric care in the town.TK Retnakumar told The News Minute
14 paediatricians will visit the clinic in alternate turns and treat children in the initiative supported by the Indian Academy of Paediatrics. The state government granted Rs 5 lakhs to each of the six ‘Child-Friendly Units’ in the state’ with this one being run in an annexe room. Children would be more comfortable in the school-like ambience at the room, he added.
“The child-friendly unit is a room adorned with paintings and cartoons on its walls. It is envisaged to make the stations more accessible to children and create awareness about their issues," the officer said.
Retnakumar discussed plans of hiring a pharmacist to distribute free medicines and also open a medical store within the station to resolve the hurdles of arranging for medicines.
After the inauguration of the clinic by Ports & Museums minister Kadannappally Ramachandran on 14 January, a total of 12 children have availed the services.
(With inputs from PTI, The News Minute)
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