In keeping with the World Health Day theme, "Working together for Health", Wockhardt Hospitals, Bangalore has associated with Canara Bank to embark on one of the largest initiatives in the state to create preventive healthcare awareness amongst the community. The program titled "Mission CASH" (Community Awareness for Secure Health) will be executed across all the branches of Canara Bank in Bangalore. Under Operation CASH, all branches of Canara Bank will function not only as regular banks but also as "Health Banks" where patrons will get free information on preventive health and can deposit their queries on healthcare along with their contact details. It will be the responsibility of the Wockhardt Hospital Group to answer these queries and forwarded them back to the concerned persons. In addition they will be given a Wockhardt Guide to Healthy Living.

"The only way to eliminate diseases is through preventing it. A joint initiative helps in reaching this message of prevention to a larger section of society. Through Operation CASH, and this path breaking association with Canara Bank, we hope to reach out across the spectrum of the community and spread the message: Stay Healthy. Practice Prevention." says Vishal Bali, CEO, Wockhardt Hospitals Group. "Besides excellent healthcare services and a good team of doctors, it is the deep sense of responsibility and accountability to the community that makes a healthcare organisation complete" he adds.

This is unique initiative wherein, for the first time, a banking organisation is associating with a hospital to promote not fiscal wellness but health wellness in the community.

Mr. M.B.N. Rao, Chairman and Managing Director, Canara Bank, while releasing the "Wockhardt Guide to Healthy Living" commented, "We extend our total support and commitment to Wockhardt Hospitals Group and will utilize this opportunity make special efforts to be emissaries of good health. Canara Bank has one of the largest networks of branches and ATMs in the city and this enables us to reach out to people from various walks of life. We expect Operation CASH to cover at least 10 million people in Bangalore and urge Wockhardt Hospitals to take this initiative further and extend it to other parts of the state. We assure them of our full co-Operation and support."

The 'Wockhardt Guide to Healthy Living' emphasizes preventive healthcare through modification of life style and risk management. The guide covers a gamut of healthcare aspects including ideal nourishment, how to cope with and manage stress, ideal weight etc. while emphasizing the fact that preventive healthcare is a much better alternative than curative healthcare.

"Modern lifestyles and the sedentary nature of jobs today do not leave people with quality time for healthy routines. It is therefore important that specific measures are taken to modify the individual's social circumstance and way of life so that health is improved and disease is prevented. This may call for precautionary lifestyle modification measures or treatment and we believe Operation CASH will help them take the first step in that direction" Bali adds.

Wockhardt's float specifically created for World Health Day, bearing messages on prevention of disease was also flagged off at the event. Over the next week, the float will travel across Bangalore and literature on how to stay healthy by practicing prevention will be distributed to the general public as well.

About Wockhardt Hospitals:

Wockhardt Hospitals Group currently runs a cluster of super-specialty hospitals in Mumbai dedicated to cardiology, neurology, orthopedics, ophthalmology and minimal access surgery. It runs Heart Care in Bangalore, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Nagpur and a super specialty kidney hospital in Kolkata. The group hospital in Mumbai is the first super specialty hospital in South Asia to receive the JCI accreditation for quality focused healthcare organizations. Wockhardt hospitals will unveil a new generation super specialty hospital in Bangalore. Wockhardt Hospitals is a treatment destination for patients from UK, US and other European Countries besides South Asia, South East Asia, Middle East and Africa. Wockhardt Hospitals is the first hospital group in South Asia to be recognized by the American Blue Cross Blue Shield Association in its worldwide network of participating hospitals and has recently been empanelled by CIGNA.