1.5 lakh Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness centres operationalized, over 1.6 crore sessions conducted: Health Ministry

New Delhi: Under Ayushman Bharat, the government flagship programme to deliver comprehensive range of services spanning preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative care over 150,000 Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) have been operationalized across the country.

Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji applauded the efforts of the nation in accomplishing this feat before the set deadline and commended that these centers will serve to provide citizens all across the nation to easily access and avail primary healthcare facilities.

Dr Mansukh Mandaviya Union Health and Family Welfare Minister congratulated the nation on this achievement and expressed his joy stating that India had successfully achieved the goal it had set out to do. Translating Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi ji’s vision into reality, the collected and collaborative efforts of States / UTs and Central Government have catapulted India into a global model for assured comprehensive primary health care services.

Ayushman Bharat has two components which are complementary to each other.

The first component pertains to the creation of 1,50,000 Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) by upgrading the Sub Health Centres (SHCs) and rural and urban Primary Health Centres (PHCs), in both urban and rural areas, to bring health care closer to the community.

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These centres aim to provide Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC), by expanding and strengthening the existing Reproductive & Child Health (RCH) and Communicable Diseases services and by including services related to Non-Communicable Diseases (common NCDs such as, Hypertension, Diabetes and three common cancers of Oral, Breast and Cervix) and incrementally adding primary healthcare services for mental health, ENT, Ophthalmology, Oral health, Geriatric and Palliative care and Trauma care as well as health promotion and wellness activities like yoga. A few States/UTs have already started rolling out these additional packages in a phased manner.

The second component is the Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan ArogyaYojana (AB-PMJAY). Under Ayushman Bharat - Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY), around 10.74 crore poor and vulnerable families identified as per Socio-Economic Caste Census are entitled for health cover of Rs. 5.00 lakh per family per year for secondary and tertiary care hospitalization. As on 25th Nov 2022, 3.8 crore hospital admissions have been authorised worth more than ₹47,000 crore, 28,636 hospitals empanelled, 20.02 crore Ayushman cards issued, 33 States/UTs implementing the scheme, approximately 50% of Ayushman card recipients are women and 46% of the hospitals empanelled are private.

Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) through Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) – Ayushman Bharat aims to holistically address health (covering preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative and palliative care), at primary, secondary and tertiary level by adopting a continuum of care approach. In the lifetime of an individual, the primary healthcare services cater to 80-90% of the healthcare needs for improved healthcare outcomes and quality of life of the population.

The Primary Health Care team ensures that community outreach and population enumeration are done for individuals in their catchment area and screened for communicable diseases and non-communicable diseases for early detection and timely referral for accurate diagnosis. The team further ensures that treatment adherence and follow-up care are provided to the patients in the community.

These centres are aimed at delivering primary healthcare services closer to the people and be the first point of contact for healthcare provisioning and referral for secondary and tertiary care. Thus, the essential health services along with the provisioning of essential medicines and diagnostics are provided closer to the community through these centres, as a step towards building stronger and resilient primary healthcare systems which cater to the healthcare needs of the population.

Achievement and Service Delivery at AB-HWCs:

More than 134 Crore people across the country have benefitted from AB-HWCs, and more than 86.90 crore beneficiaries have been cumulatively screened for non-communicable diseases which include 29.95 Crore for Hypertension, 25.56 Crore for Diabetes, 17.44 Crore for Oral cancer, 8.27 Crore for Breast Cancer and 5.66 Crore for Cervical Cancer.

Till date, more than 1.60 crore wellness sessions have been conducted at these centres. 

More than 134 Crore people across the country have benefitted from AB-HWCs, and more than 86.90 crore beneficiaries have been cumulatively screened for non-communicable diseases which include 29.95 Crore for Hypertension, 25.56 Crore for Diabetes, 17.44 Crore for Oral cancer, 8.27 Crore for Breast Cancer and 5.66 Crore for Cervical Cancer.

In light of expansion of AB-HWCs, the number of essential medicines has increased to 172 at Primary Health Centres – Health Wellness Centres (PHC-HWC) and 105 at Sub Health Centres – Health Wellness Centres (SHC-HWC) and essential diagnostics have also expanded to 63 at PHC-HWC and 14 at SHC-HWC. AB-HWCs also encompass wellness sessions on Yoga, Zumba, cyclathons, walkathons, and provide guidelines on diet, physical activity, positive parenting, tobacco, alcohol cessation among other aspects to imbibe a mindset for community well-being.

With the objective to provide quality health services to a patient residing in rural areas,1,09,748 Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) have tele- consultation model, achieving a total of 7,11,58,968 teleconsultations.

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