Transformation of 1.5 lakh health centres into wellness centres !

Government is planning to transform 1.5 lakh sub health centres and primary health centres into health and wellness centres across the country to roll out Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) plan as part of Ayushman Bharat (AB).

Against the target of 40,000 AB-HWCs by FY 2019-20, approvals for more than 62,000 AB-HWCs have been given to States/UTs and as per AB-HWC portal, 29214 AB-HWC are functional till date.

States/UTs have been oriented by conducting four regional workshops in the year 2019 on operationalisation of AB-health and wellness centres (HWCs). Further, regular meetings and Video Conferences are being conducted to review the implementation of AB-HWCs.

Under National Health Mission (NHM), technical and financial support is provided to the States to strengthen their primary healthcare system including for transformation of healthcare facilities to AB-HWCs viz, support for engaging required human resources, multi-skilling and capacity building of the existing primary healthcare workers, expanded range of medicines and diagnostics, upgraded infrastructure, digitization in terms of availability of tablets, desktops, use of telemedicine, information technology platforms, inclusion of health promotion activities, community mobilization and additional financial resources as per the norms prescribed in the operational guidelines on Ayushman Bharat – Comprehensive Primary Health Care (AB-CPHC) through health and wellness centres.

Ayushman Bharat, a flagship scheme of Government of India was launched as recommended by the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). This initiative has been designed on the lines as to meet SDG and its underlining commitment, which is “leave no one behind”.

AB is an attempt to move from sectoral and segmented approach of health service delivery to a comprehensive need-based health care service. The scheme aims to undertake path breaking interventions to holistically address health (covering prevention, promotion and ambulatory care), at primary, secondary and tertiary level.

Reference: Pharmabiz.com