One of the major initiatives under the Aardram Mission, the transformation of primary health centres (PHCs) as family health centres (FHCs), is becoming a reality with 35 out of the selected 170 PHCs in the first phase of the project are getting ready to function.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will inaugurate the first FHCs, the Chemmaruthy PHC at Varkala, here on August 17.
By December 31, the government expected all the 170 FHCs in the first phase to become functional, Health Minister K.K. Shylaja said here on Friday. In the next two years, at least one PHC in every panchayat would be converted to an FHC, she said.
Unlike the PHCs with a single doctor, every FHC will have three doctors, four staff nurses, one lab technician and one pharmacist. The FHC will be the first point of care for any illness for every family under its jurisdiction and will be open from 9 a.m. till 6 p.m.
The FHCs will have modern registration and token systems, consultation rooms with ample privacy, comfortable waiting areas, drinking water, proper signages to direct patients and special toilets accessible to the physically challenged.
Efforts are on to open yoga centres in every FHC with the help of Ayush.
The FHCs are being developed in such a way that in future the concept of family physician can be ushered in. Apart from maternal and child-care services, prevention of infectious diseases and proper control of lifestyle diseases will be the responsibility of the FHCs. All staff members will undergo training in inter-personal communication skills so that the interaction with patients will be cordial and friendly.
Apart from the regular OP clinics, the FHCs will have weekly depression clinics, counselling and COPD (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease) clinics too. Standard treatment guidelines and referral protocols have been developed for the essential care package that a FHC would have to deliver. Generic drugs will be distributed for free through these centres.
The government had created 961 new posts, including that of doctors and paramedics, as part of the efforts to augment service delivery and facilities in eight medical colleges, 17 district hospitals and 170 PHCs in phase one of Aardram, Ms. Shylaja said.