Govt to set up 1.5 lakhs Health, Wellness Centers by December 2022: Dr Harsh Vardhan

The information to this effect was recently shared in a Rajya Sabha session when Vijay Pal Singh Tomar asked the Minister of State in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoS Health) about the efforts made by the Government to improve the infrastructure of hospitals/Public Healthcare e Centres in order to provide quality healthcare services in the country.

Tomar also asked whether Government proposes to deploy sufficient manpower in healthcare facilities across the country. He further questioned if any concrete action has been taken by Government to resolve the unmanageable patient load in public hospitals including for expansion of hospital infrastructure.

Responding to the queries, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Harsh Vardhan stated that Under the National Health Mission (NHM) however, financial and technical support is provided to States/UTs for strengthening their healthcare systems including for expansion of public health institutions, such as district hospitals, Community Health Centers (CHCs), Primary Health Centres (PHCs), and Sub-Health Centres (SHCs) as well as for deployment of human resources to cater to public health services to all.

"Under the Ayushman Bharat initiative, the Government is committed to setting up of 1.5 lakhs Health & Wellness Centers (HWCs), across the country by December 2022. Sufficient resources have been provided to the States for the creation of the same and as many as 57,017 HWCs have become functional so far, taking primary healthcare services to the community," the Minister said.

He further added that so far more than 35 crores of footfall have been recorded at the HWCs and screening for ailments like hypertension, diabetes, oral cancer, breast cancer and cervical cancer has been carried out for a total of approximately 9 crores people in the the community added the minister. With the rapid expansion in HWCs, the patient load at the public hospitals for minor ailments, which constitutes a significant proportion of the total patient load, will be addressed, thereby decongesting the public hospitals and improving the overall quality of healthcare at the public hospitals.

The minister also mentioned the "Free Drugs Service Initiative" (FDSI), launched by NHM in 2015 that ensures an adequate supply of medicines in public hospitals/healthcare facilities. The initiative aims to supplement the efforts of the States towards making available free drugs to healthcare seekers at all levels of the public health system. Apart from this, the Pradhan Mantri Bharatiya Jan Aushadhi Pariyojana is being implemented for ensuring the availability of quality generic medicines at affordable prices.

Apart from this, states are also being supported under NHM for expansion in capacities, viz through provision of extra hospital beds, ICUs/HDUs etc., free diagnostics and free drugs/medicines where ever necessary. Under the National Quality Assurance Programme of the Ministry, public health facilities are certified according to best-in-class norms for quality of patient-centric services.

Confirming that the Government is committed to strengthening the infrastructure of healthcare facilities, the minister stated that the government has been augmenting the efforts of the States based on their proposals received through Programme Implementation Plan (PIP). Accordingly, the PM Atma Nirbhar Swasth Bharat Yojana has been announced for developing capacities of primary, secondary and tertiary care health systems, strengthen existing national institutions, and create new institutions, to cater to detection and cure of new and emerging diseases. This will be in addition to the National Health Mission. The main interventions under the scheme are:

a. Support for 17,788 rural and 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centers

b. Setting up integrated public health labs in all districts and 3382 block public health units in11 states;

c. Establishing critical care hospital blocks in 602 districts and 12 central institutions;

d. Strengthening of the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), its 5 regional branches and 20 metropolitan health surveillance units;

e. Expansion of the Integrated Health Information Portal to all States/UTs to connect all public health labs;

f. Operationalisation of 17 new Public Health Units and strengthening of 33 existing Public Health Units at Points of Entry, that is at 32 Airports, 11 Seaports and 7 land crossings;

g. Setting up of 15 Health Emergency Operation Centers and 2 mobile hospitals; and

h. Setting up of a national institution for One Health, a Regional Research Platform for WHO South East Asia Region, 9 Bio-Safety Level III laboratories and 4 regional National Institutes for Virology.