The PHC was ranked among the top 16 in the district for meeting the high National Quality Assurance Standards.At an extremely busy primary health centre at Wagholi, a peon is busy trying to ensure that patients do not grumble due to the long waiting period at the out patient department. Such is the popularity of this centre that despite norms entailing that it cater to a population of 30,000, it is reaching out to nearly 1.5 lakh.
Dr Nagsen Lokhande, medical officer at the PHC, Wagholi, said the daily OPD is nothing less than 300 patients. In 2018-19, the PHC registered an OPD attendance of 74,882. This year till date, the centre has registered an OPD of 14,421.
While the PHC has eight villages under its jurisdiction, including Avhalwadi, Kesanand, Manjari among others, people from areas like Lohegaon, Chandannagar and Kharadi also visit the centre for not only primary medical treatment but also for maternal delivery services. According to estimates, the number of patients visiting the PHC is nearly 1.5 lakh.
“There were 601 deliveries performed in 2018-19 and another 135 have been performed so far this year. In 2017-18, there were a total of 582 deliveries while in 2016-17, the number was 460. In 2015-16, there were 434 deliveries and in all these years, there have been zero maternal deaths,” said Dr Lokhande. The infant mortality rate at this PHC is an approximate 6 per 1,000 live births.
The PHC at Wagholi was also ranked among the top 16 in Pune district for meeting the high National Quality Assurance Standards. There are 96 primary health centres in the district and according to Dr Santosh Gaikwad, Pune District Health Officer, most of them have registered zero maternal deaths. The number of maternal deaths has come down to between 10 and 20 a year, district health authorities said.
At Wagholi PHC, a team of dedicated staff has been able to achieve its targets, be it on immunisation of children or encouraging family planning (sterilisation) methods. However, there are challenges that have to be met with. Besides the requirement of staff, the PHC has to deal with heavy workload. It has urged for one more medical officer in addition to the two at present. There is also a need for two staff nurses (general nursing midwife) and one auxiliary nursing midwife.
According to health authorities, there are 33 Accredited Social Health Workers (ASHA) who have been entrusted with responsibilities like identifying and registering new pregnancies, among others. But the authorities said there was a need for more. Another challenge is the lack of documents with migrants.
“At the OPD we are treating a lot of people who have migrated from other states… Most do not have Aadhaar cards or have to get their cards updated in order to avail of benefits of various government schemes,” Lokhande said. For instance, as part of the Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY) — a maternity benefit programme — phase wise cash incentive of Rs 5,000 is provided directly to the bank accounts of pregnant women and lactating mothers for the first child of the family.
“There are instances of women not claiming the amount as they do not have an Aadhaar card. Last year, a total of 1,056 women claimed benefits under the PMMVY, of which at least 350 were such who did not have an Aadhaar card or a bank account. We had to organise a special drive to ensure they get their documents,” Lokhande said, adding that they have urged the district collectorate to set up another Aadhaar updation centre at Wagholi to expedite the process.
