TCV Health Centre was started in year 1960 as a small transit nursery for the newly arrived Tibetan Refugee Children who had to be looked after with various sicknesses. Initially, it was supported by the Swiss Aid for Tibetans. Supplies of medicine, equipments and staff to care for the children were drastically inadequate.
With the help of generous fund and support of many foreign donors, in 1995, the old building was demolished and the present Health Centre was built at TCV Dharamsala. It was inaugurated by H.H the Dalai Lama on 26 Oct 1997. Gradually several TCV branch Children's Village and Schools were started in Patlikuhl (1971), Ladakh (1975), Bylakuppe (1981), Lower Dharamsala (1984), Suja (1990), Bir (1995), Gopalpur (1997), Selakui and Chuantra (2004).
TCV Health Centre holds a very important place in the overall soundness of health and fitness of the children throughout the year. The Health Centre is staffed with Resident Doctors and full time Nurses, Health Workers, Aayas, Lab Technicians, Denturists and Dentists, Opticians etc. They are available to all the students and staff of the TCV as and when there is an emergency case.
Health Services Available:
- In-Patient Service: In-patient services are provided for the patients requiring comprehensive nursing care and similar cases for treatment. The duration of hospitalization vary from 1 day to months depending on the severity of the disease.
- Out-Patient Service (OPD): Days have been allotted for the different categories like students, staff and outsiders/local people from the surrounding villages for the treatment.
- Dental Service: Extraction, Scaling and Polish, Root Canal Therapy and Filling of Teeth are done in most of our well equipped Dental Clinics. Here also separate days were allotted for the student, staff and the local public from the nearby villages to seek necessary assistance. A Denture Section is also available for artificial dentures in several TCV Health Centres.
- Laboratory Service: Sputum for AFB, Urine and Stool Analysis, basic Hematology and Biochemistry tests are done in the TCV Health Centre Labs. Few blood tests-Liver function or Thyroid function tests are referred to other Labs as TCV do not buy expensive kits where only few patients need such investigations.
- Eye Service:
Refraction and Vision Acuity tests are routinely done for all children during the Health Checkups. Spectacles are accordingly provided as per need and eye surgeries have to be referred to other nearby Eye Hospitals of that locality.
- Tibetan Traditional Medicines are also available and a Doctor from Tibetan Medical and Astrology Institute (TMAI) or its branches at various settlements visits TCV Schools on time to time basis. Most of the older staff and students take Tibetan Medicine regularly.
- Immunization Program: Monthly Immunization is held once in month so as to check whether the immunization program is covered fully. All new arrivals to TCV School are screened for vaccination coverage. BCG, DPT and OPV, Measles, MMR, Hepatitis-B and TT Vaccines are given here. Since children from Tibet are not immunized, they are given the vaccination at the earliest to curb various epidemics.
- TB Control Program: With the guidance of Dr. Tsetan Dorji, TB Control Program is monitored under the Delek Hospital, Dharamsala.
- Referral Service: Patients requiring specialist's opinion, surgery or other investigation like MRI, CT-Scan, Ultra-Sound have to be sent to other hospitals around like- Delek Hospital, Zonal Hospital, PGI Hospital, Chandigarh, etc.
- Special Activities: From time to time, various Workshops are held for the Health Centre Staff and Volunteer Medical Services attend the Schools for special services. They also do occasional Check-ups for the children at the branch Schools of TCV.
♠ Direct Observation Therapy (DOT) system is followed as per World Health Organization (WHO) to ensure that no patient misses their medications. TB positive patients from all the branch Schools, Vocational Training Centres and even Ex-Students in various Colleges come here for treatment.
♠ All the Drugs are supplied from Delek Hospital and they sent us the bills. TB patients not responding to the Standard Regimen are put on Multi-Drug Therapy (MDR) after their Sputum is sent for Culture and Sensitivity Test at Mumbai. MDR Drugs are very expensive and the duration of therapy is 18 months. According to the sensitivity results, patient's medication is changed and expenses for drugs alone amount to Rs. 30, 000/- to Lakhs.
♠ A TCV Home is set up at Chandigarh where the patients from all the TCV Schools can stay there while undergoing various medical tests and or other reviews, etc. A nurse is there to help them at the OPD.
Overall TCV Health Center Staff Data: DOWNLOAD 
Dental Workshop:
A Dental Workshop was organized from 8-25 January 2007 at Upper TCV School, Health Centre. The Workshop was facilitated by Dr. Guido Poriau from Belgium and was attended by 5 participants namely-Ms. Kelsang Wangmo and Ms. Kunsang Dechen, SOS Ladakh, Ms. Sonam Choedon, Suja Bir, Ms. Tsering Tsomo and Mr. Tashi Norbu, Upper TCV Health Centre.
Contact:TCV Health Centre
C/o Head Office
TCV School Dharamsala Cantt.
Distt. Kangra- 176216 (H.P) India
Tel: +91 1892 221245 Fax: +91 1892 221670
♣ headoffice(at)tcv.org.in
Branch Health Centres:
♠ Health Centre, Lower TCV School, Dharamsala
♠ Health Centre, TCV School Gopalpur
♠ Health Centre, TCV School Suja/Bir
♠ Health Centre, TCV School Ladakh
♠ Health Centre, TCV School Bylakuppe
♠ Health Centre, TCV School Chuantra
♠ Health Centre, TCV School Selakui
