Dr. Saika’s Smile Care Foundation and the Clinics efforts towards humanity.
Dr. Saika Shah is working towards the mission of making medical treatment affordable for the needy, starting with Dental treatment.
She has always been concerned for and moved by the plight of the under-privileged. The idea of working for the under-privileged had been ingrained in her since her very early years the credit of which she gives to her respected father. While securing her admission in the dental college the very first words of her father was that, “I am encouraging you in this profession not to mint money but to work primarily for the needy”, and these noble thoughts have stuck with her all through her formative years.
Insipte of getting opportunities to work in private set-ups, Dr.Saika had made it a point that she would always also be attached with some or the other trust/ charitable clinic on a regular basis. But one experience made her change her approach and start with a completely renewed resolve.
It so happened that once she was attending to an extremely impoverished patient in one of the charitable clinics. Looking at the condition of the patient she did not charge her fees for the treatment and wanted to provide them with a convenient payment option for other charges incurred by them. Later on when the patrons got to know about this they called for her and indirectly conveyed to her that this gesture was not well-appreciated by them and since there may be many needy people around and this will start an unwelcome trend.
This was the trigger point for Dr.Saika to start an endeavor for providing affordable treatment for the under-privileged and even free treatments for the genuinely needy. The mission being to go in the midst where such treatment is actually required. Thus the idea of ‘SMILE CARE’ was born. Working towards her vision she established a clinic in one such impoverished area in Goregaon, a Western suburb of Mumbai, in the state of Maharashtra, India. She started in her area of expertise - Oral/ Dental Care. The aim is to provide affordable treatment without any compromise in quality and line of treatment. Smile Care was thus instrumental in bringing a ‘Smile’ to the needy through its genuine ‘Care’ and affection.
While working in the area she realized the challenges of such areas, especially the unhygienic living conditions causing frequent illness and their regular visits to doctors and ofcourse the mandatory blood tests. Thus to relieve some of their pain of travelling all the way in their illness to distant Pathology Labs not to mention the inconvenience apart from the travelling costs, Dr.Saika literally worked towards bringing the labs closer to them and ease their pain, thus extending the services at Smile Care as a Blood Collection Centre. She tied-up with a good pathology lab to provide quality reports as well.
It is no secret regarding the quality of treatment mostly available in such areas. Thus to provide quality general medical treatment Dr.Saika further plans to scale the services as a polyclinic providing General consultation (GMP), and some critical specialties such as Gynaec, etc. again with the objective of providing quality affordable treatment.
Dr.Saika strongly and very rightly believes that the key to success of any endeavor how-so-ever noble it may be is to make it self-sustainable. Hence though the rates may be very competitive as such, she has planned the entire revenue model on a self-sustaining manner, wherein all the expenses of the clinic which includes the remuneration of doctors and assistants, running expenses, etc. is generated from the clinic itself. There may not be high margins but surely the costs are taken care of.
Also adhering to the skills development endeavor, this mission of Dr.Saika has multi-pronged objectives of developing skills of the local population and making them job ready and also providing job opportunities – The support staff such as, clinic assistants, admin staff etc. are sourced from the local area and trained and employed. Furthermore 2-3 months training sessions are conducted for other interested locals as well, so that they can be trained as well as get hands-on experience as clinic assistants/ admins to help them secure a job in other clinics with the knowledge as well as experience gained.
In less than a decade of her professional career, Dr.Saika has treated as well as consulted more than 10000 (Ten Thousand) needy and under-privileged people not just in her clinics but also in schools as well as remote tribal areas in and around the city.
It is an open fact that there is huge shortage of quality health services being accessible to the under-privileged and Dr.Saika’s vision is to address these medical related issues to the best of her potential, she envisions to have such multi-purpose clinics in as many under-privileged pockets of not just this city Mumbai but also the entire state and the whole nation as well.
Apart from the kind wishes of near and dear ones, Dr.Saika is ably supported in this noble endeavor by a few kind-hearted medic Samaritans - Dr.Zeba Shaikh, Dr.Nish*ta Karkera and an all-female staff. This is the real strength and show of women-power.
The Vision is no-doubt great but the mission may not be easy, though not impossible, yet there is a long way to go. Let us join hands to make this noble endeavor of Dr,Saika a huge success so that she continues to bring a ‘Smile’ to those in need through her ‘Care’ and affection across humanity.
