Idea 359 of 500. Cluster 17: Health, care and the parents of Sri Lankans abroad
Eye clinics in the districts
The mechanism, from the book
Sri Lankans abroad have parents at home whom they cannot look after from Melbourne. They will pay, and the money stays.
Every idea in cluster 17 uses this mechanism.
A first step
Spend one day at a district market with a trained optometry assistant, a vision chart and a stock of reading glasses priced to cover cost. Write down how many people you see, how many buy glasses, and how many are told to see a specialist and say they cannot get there. That last number is the case for a district clinic, and the glasses sales tell you who pays.
- Who pays first
- Older people in a district town who need reading glasses today, paid for by themselves or by a child abroad who sends the money.
- What leaves today
- Rural patients now travel to the city or go without; a district clinic keeps the fee, the jobs and the record in the district.
The idea and the mechanism are from the book. The first step was written for this site as a suggestion; if you know a better one, say so.
The test
Does it keep value that now leaves the island, or build the proof that lets somebody else do so?
The only test any idea on this site has to pass. The four rules that go with it are here.
In the book
- Ch. EightWhat It Costs to Go First
Remittances and what it costs the first one to go - Ch. SixteenThe Bridge
The institutions already in existence that could carry value back
More from cluster 17
- 341Home-care agencies with trained, vetted carers, booked and paid from abroad
- 342Assisted-living homes for the parents of Sri Lankans abroad, with the standard published and inspected
- 343A daily check-in service: a nurse's visit, a photograph, a message to the child abroad
- 344Medical escort services: a nurse takes the parent to the appointment and reports back
- 345Pharmacy delivery with the prescription managed and the refills tracked
- 346Dementia day-care centres, which hardly exist yet and are needed everywhere
Idea 359 of the 500 in the appendix of Why Not Sri Lanka? Every one can be started by one person, one family or one small firm.