Ayushman Bharat wellness Centres or mohalla clinics? Union Health Ministry locks horns with Punjab Govt

A top Health Ministry official on Tuesday said that the funds given to states under the Ayushman Bharat for Health Wellness Centres will not be released for Punjab.

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"The money is given for this particular scheme. If the scheme is converted or being rebranded that means the government has stopped the scheme. So, there is no scheme, and then there will be no money from Centre," said a source adding that Punjab has not only changed the branding but has also started calling them Mohalla Clinics.

The Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC) is formulated with 60:40 contribution ratios. As per the Memorandum Of Understanding signed between Centre and states, the Centre bears 60 per cent and the states have to spend rest 40 per cent.

Under the scheme, the state has been given Rs 63.87 crore in 2019-20, Rs 239.73 crore in 2020-21, Rs 148.52 crore in 2021-22 and Rs 145.88 crore in 2022-23 for infrastructure strengthening, chief health officer salary, strengthening of diagnostic services and others.

Highlighting the ministry's earlier communication where the states were asked to ensure facade branding of the Health and Wellness Centres (HWC) as per the design manual of National Health Mission for HWCs in a letter to the Punjab government on February 6, the ministry said that "the state is still not complying with the branding requirements in case of PHC-HWCs in urban and rural area."

"Further, the importance of compliance by all states/UTs to this branding has been reiterated several times in the review meetings held with states/UTs from time to time. Subsequently, letter dated November 30, 2022 was sent by ASMMD (NHM) requesting the state to ensure branding of healthcare infrastructure as per NHM guidelines wherever services were being supported by NHM funds," the letter reads.

"The state has violated the provisions of Clause 10.3 and 10.10 of MoU and has stopped implementing the AB-HWC component of NHM (National Health Mission), therefore releases to the state under NHM do not appear feasible as per provisions of Clause 13 of the MOU," NHM Additional Secretary Roli Singh said in the letter.

The source said that other states like Telangana have also partially deviated from implementing the scheme and have been asked for corrections. The official added that around 3,029 sub-health centres, primary health centres and urban health centres have been converted into Mohala Clinics in Punjab.

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