THE CONCEPT OF ‘SUPERVISION’ OF EACH PATIENT TILL TREATMENT IS COMPLETE.
Supervision is an efficient tool has been introduced to ensure that patient indeed completes his course of medicines and doesn’t default midway.
Home address of the patient is recorded and verified at the outset. Being easily traceable, the patient cannot then quit and disappear into the sea of humanity – like before.
The patient stays at home but he comes to a nearby clinic 3 times a week and swallows each dose of medicines right in front of a health worker – hence the name Directly Observed Treatment (DOT).
During the first two months, all three doses of the week are taken under direct supervision; patient is not permitted to carry home any drugs whatsoever.
Thereafter, supervision is relaxed a bit – patient visits only once a week – swallows one dose and carries home the remaining two doses for the week.
Meticulous record keeping further prevents concealed irregularity. If a patient fails to turn up, it immediately comes to the worker’s notice; he goes to his house and administers the dose thus preventing a breach in treatment. A fundamental shift has thus taken place – the onus of cure (as also the initiative) rests not with the patient but with the health-care system.