The Symbiosis University Hospital and Research Centre (SUHRC) is a 300 bedded healthcare facility that is located in the Lavale campus of the Symbiosis International University (SIU), providing healthcare facilities to this underserved part of the state. The surrounding area is semi-urban with approximately 32 villages being located within a 12 kilometres radius.
Symbiosis has been providing local community services through the Symbiosis Community Outreach Programme and Extension (SCOPE)for many years now. We plan to continue and enhance these services through the hospital.
The SUHRC is a tertiary care hospital with all the basic specialities as well as select super specialities like Cardiology, Nephrology, Gastroenterology and Neurology. There will be a total of 22 ICU beds including 6 High Dependency Unit (HDU) beds and 6 dialysis beds. Our facilities include the latest MRI, CT scanner and Cathlab (angiography/ angioplasty) machines, state-of-the-art 5 operation theatres, Laboratory equipment, Blood bank and a 24 x7 Pharmacy. There are 100 general ward beds and another 650 will be added soon as part of the medical college hospital in the same campus. We hope to provide subsidised but quality care to this socioeconomic class.
The doctors will be employed on a full time basis, so as to ensure 24x 7 delivery of quality care. The 15 departments will have at least 2 consultant doctors each, an initial strength of 30 medical officers and 100 nurses. The schedule of charges is expected to be approximately 20 to 30 % lower than the corporate hospitals in Pune. All government health schemes shall be available at our hospital in the near future. All TPAs and insurance companies will be empanelled shortly as well.
In addition to patient care, there will be an emphasis on Research and enhancing related capabilities. The proximity of sister institutes like Symbiosis Institute of Technology (SIT), Symbiosis Centre for Medical Imaging Analysis (SCMIA), Symbiosis Centre for Nanoscience & Nanotechnology (SCNN), Symbiosis Centre for Stem cell Research (SCSR), Symbiosis School of Biological Sciences (SSBS) and Symbiosis School of Sports Sciences (SSSS) will facilitate this endeavour.
We hope to integrate low cost healthcare with cutting edge technology and research so as to be able to deliver the best in the healthcare domain to an underserved and impoverished population.
Symbiosis International (Deemed University) offers medical facilities for all its students and teaching and non-teaching staff through Symbiosis Centre of Health Care (SCHC). SCHC was established in 1997 with the mission of addressing the healthcare needs, primarily of the students & staff of Symbiosis, envisioning a state of ‘Positive Health’ in them. It is the “In-house Health Care Unit” of Symbiosis which provides preventive, promotive and curative health care services. The healthcare services are rendered to students & staff through standardized healthcare setups and quality NABL accredited lab services.
The following primary health care services are provided by the Symbiosis Centre of Health Care (SCHC):
| SN | Campus | OPD Timings | EMS No. (Beyond OPD Timings) |
| 1 | S. B. Road | 8.00 am to 8.00 pm | +91 9552525651 |
| 2 | Viman Nagar (New) | 8.00 am to 8.00 pm | +91 9552589179 |
| 3 | Viman Nagar (Old) | 9.00 am to 5.00 pm | +91 9552525654 |
| 4 | Hinjewadi | 8.00 am to 8.00 pm | +91 9552525650 |
| 5 | Lavale - Hill Top | 8.00 am to 8.00 pm | +91 9552525652 |
| 6 | Lavale - Hill Base | 8.30 am to 4.30 pm | +91 9552525653 |
| 7 | Kirkee | 12.30 pm to 2.30 pm | +91 9552525663 |
| 8 | Model Colony | 11.30 am to 2.30 pm | +91 9552382845 |
| 9 | Nashik | 9.00 am to 5.00 pm | +91 9552525658 |
| 10 | Noida | 9.00 am to 5.00 pm | +91 9910049924 |
| 11 | Bengaluru | 9.00 am to 5.00 pm | +91 7022043266 |
| 12 | Hyderabad | 9.00 am to 5.00 pm | +91 9552589139 |
Symbiosis International (Deemed University) (SIU) launched Symbiosis Community Outreach Programme and Extension (SCOPE) as a department on 2nd July 2012 with the objective of positively impacting the community around SIU as a part of its health promoting initiatives. SCOPE through its twin arms of healthcare and non-health initiatives is working towards a sustainable, comprehensive and integrated development of the 22 identified villages located in the vicinity of main campus of SIU at Mulshi taluka of Pune district. The objective is to equip the community to identify, and promote its own health initiatives, by taking proactive, community driven sustainable socio-economic and environmental efforts.
SIU is committed to the principles of ― ‘Health for All’ and sustainable development. This is an asset to the university staff, students and to the communities in which they are located and to the wider society where these students will eventually assume professional roles.
SCOPE is presently implementing SIU’s mandate of Health Promotion University, (HPU)- promotion of sustainable health within the wider community and aims to contribute towards health & well-being in the identified villages, through various initiatives listed below:
The healthcare services are targeted at poor and needy and belonging to marginalized populations residing in various access compromised regions of Mulshi taluka. The healthcare initiative comprises of Symbiosis Gram Clinics, (SGC) situated at Sus and Nande villages and Mobile Medical Units (MMU). The SGC ( 2 villages) and MMU (20 villages) together over the past 8 years have reached out to provide preventive, promotive and curative healthcare services to more than 76000 ( till December 2020) individuals. This includes over 500 individuals who were provided various services like family planning and immunization etc. in collaboration with government and non-government agencies. The identified high-risk cases are referred to Symbiosis University Hospital and Research Centre (SUHRC) for further investigations and treatment which is free of charge to the patients. The health care unit also organizes on-site general health check-up camps at identified sites (brick kiln, construction sites).
Imparting health awareness is an important construct of health promotion. SCOPE has implemented health education activities to increase health awareness in the areas of nutrition, maternal and child health, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, vector borne diseases, alcohol and tobacco deaddiction, deworming and organ donation etc. The topics are selected as per ‘felt needs’ of the community and local health priorities. Till date, SCOPE has effectively organized around 300 such programs. Members of the community, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and government stakeholders actively collaborate for the activities.
SIU pursues the agenda of sustainable development of rural community with the potent tool of ‘community engagement’. It is achieved by inclusion of local health system users and community resources in the design, planning, governance, and delivery of health care services. SIU collaborates with students, community members, governmental and non-governmental bodies for the implementation of various initiatives. The active involvement of stakeholders ensures sustainability of SCOPE initiatives in field.
Symbiosis Community Volunteers (SCVs) are backbone of community and student engagement. SCVs are community influencers identified from 22 villages, who assist in health education initiatives and work to propagate good health practices. Students from different constituents of SIU are actively involved in various health care activities.
SCOPE through its non-healthcare activities engages with various stakeholders such as children, women, SHG members, etc. in the identified villages to work in the areas of Education, Livelihoods, Sanitation and Waste Management, Financial Inclusion etc. The activities are taken up by convergence with various government schemes and programmes such as Unnat Bharat Abhiyan, Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Swachhata Pakhwada, Plastic free village drives etc.
Unnat Bharat Abhiyan is a flagship initiative of Ministry of Human Resource Development, (MHRD), and SIU is a Participating Institute (PI) under this initiative. As a PI, SCOPE identified 5 villages to focus its efforts. Followed with the baseline assessment of the villages the issue of waste management and open defecation was picked up as one of the areas for intervention in these adopted villages.
Till date over 1300 students and 30 faculty members from various institutes of SIU have participated in different activities related to UBA in these adopted villages.
Additionally, awareness activities, village cleanliness drive, plastic free village drive etc. were also undertaken.
Education is one of the areas where the SCOPE team works closely on the ground, with an objective to positively influence the learning outcomes of students of schools in the villages. Student volunteers for various constituents conduct a wide variety of activities such as remedial sessions on various aspects such as Mathematics, Science, Communicative English etc., aid in improving the school infrastructure, foster digital education and literacy.
Responding to this challenge of girl child education SIU instituted the scholarship for girl student from identified villages in the year 2016. Through this scholarship, SIU aims to promote education and empowerment of girl students, thus creating a more inclusive, equitable and just society. Till date thirteen students benefitted from the scholarship and a total of Rs 68, 64,800 was spent by SIU as scholarship towards the education of these girl students.
Improper handling and disposal of waste has an adverse impact on the environment, human health, soil and ground water resources. The Nisarglaxmi project was conceptualized as a response by SIU to the challenge of segregation, storage and disposal of household organic waste in a scientific, environment friendly and decentralized manner, with an aim to reduce burden on dumping grounds and thus reducing environmental emissions.
As of May 2020 the team has conducted over 20 awareness sessions in 3 different villages and over 50 households are currently using the Nisarglaxmi waste segregation and disposal system. It can be estimated that every day, over 17.5kg of biodegradable wet waste is processed at source because of Nisarglaxmi technology.
Keeping in line with the Swachhata Initiatives, SIU carries out various Swachhata related activities in the identified villages such as Gram Swachhata Abhiyan. Over the past few years SCOPE team in collaboration with the village authorities, and various constituent institutes of SIU organised 5 village cleanliness drives which together saw participation from 9 different institutes and over 150 students. SCOPE is also working with the Gram Panchayats of two villages in order to achieve Open Defecation Free, (ODF+) and plastic free village status.
Recognising the significance of promotion of pilgrim health, SCOPE has been offering free medical services for Warkaris participating in the Pandharpur pilgrimage since 2018. Around 120,000 pilgrims have benefitted with the services in last two years. The activity is implemented in association with Mrs. Sheela Raj Salve Memorial Trust. Each year over 300 student volunteers from different institutes of SIU collaborate with SCOPE during the three days when the warkaris pass through Pune.
Service learning is an essential component of academic instruction at SIU. Under service learning, undergraduate students along with their faculty members and other collaborators such as NGOs, village level organisations work upon various social issues and challenges, in an attempt to find solutions to various developmental problems that are experienced by people. The major objective of service learning is to provide an experiential learning avenue to the students and faculty, develop civic engagement skills of students and at the same time provide the community with tangible solutions to the developmental challenges.
A total of 7553 students till December 2020 invested 491400 human hours towards community service. Some of the projects that students worked upon over the past years include awareness campaigns about various issues such as menstrual health, organ donation, cancer, sexual harassment, gender equality and government schemes, development of websites, photo documentation for various NGOs and installation of solar panels, working on safety of environments, digital literacy for rural school children etc. Service-learning course objectives are linked to community needs that are designed in cooperation with community partners and service recipients.
SCOPE widely promotes and conducts community based research projects. Faculty, research officers, and students of constituents actively carry out research in the identified areas of SCOPE. Currently there are five research projects ongoing in the areas of TB, Anaemia, Community Perceptions about SCOPE’s Healthcare Services, Maternal Health, Micronutrient Deficiency in Children and Women.
With the realm of above mentioned HPU activities, SCOPE is marching ahead towards fulfilling HPU objectives.
Contact details:
If you want to contribute/ volunteer/ intern/ collaborate/ associate in any of the SCOPE's activities, kindly contact Program Officer, SCOPE : – poscope@siu.edu.in
Inauguration of Family Doctor Clinic, Sus
Inauguration of Mobile Medical Unit Van-Handing over keys
Awareness session on food safety hygiene being conducted by Students
Breast Cancer Awareness sessions conducted by students
Climate Reality Project conducted an awareness programme for Khamboli school children.
Clinical examination of a patient in progress at Symbiosis Gram Clinic Nande
Elected members of Sus Gram Panchayat and key opinion leaders of Sus village after Nisargalaxmi training session
Examination in the Mobile Medical Unit at Villages
Green Mobility - Students conducted walkathone to encourage safety of environment.
Healthcare Services-Mobile Medical Unit
Medical care being provided to Warkaris during Pandharpur Wari
Social Worker demonstrating handwashing
Street Play - Save the Girl Child
Street play organized by students for school children of Rihe about awareness on Organ Donation with I Gift Life NGO.
