The IRHS supports a unique program, in which a network of patient counsellors ensure that the rural poor actually get the healthcare that they need. Generally, people from remote rural areas will not have travelled much further than their local market town. When poor rural people become unwell they are often forced, by the lack of specialist healthcare in their area, to travel to Hyderabad in search of treatment. Hyderabad is the only city, in the western region of this large state of 80 million people, which has high quality government-run specialist health facilities, including the state's only specialist children's hospital. Rural people are frequently illiterate and have no experience or understanding of the city or the complexities of the hospital system (hospitals in the capital city are frequently divided into specialties: Cancer Hospital, Eye Hospital, Fever Hospital, etc.). Our patient counsellors are trained and skilled local people, who assist the rural poor in need of medical attention at every step of the way. They are trilingual, and can speak to patients in English, Hindi or Telugu, the local language. Patient Counsellors provide the poor with the confidence to seek Healthcare, outside of their villages.