Staff Reporter / New Delhi
India touched a landmark milestone with operationalization of more than 50,000 Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness Centers. This has led to improved access to affordable primary health care services for more than 25 crore people in the country.
Health and Family Welfare Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan congratulated the States and Union Territories for their efforts in operationalizing the Health and Wellness Centres despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister said, this has been made possible due to the joint efforts of the Center and the States and Union Territories’ government. Dr. Harsh Vardhan also thanked the frontline health workers, the Medical Officers, the Community Health Officers and ASHAs for their dedication to the cause of providing Comprehensive Primary Health Care services in these difficult times.
Ayushman Bharat Scheme was launched in 2018 which aimed at providing Comprehensive Primary Health Care services to the communities closer to their homes.
Around 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres are to be established by the year 2022.
Ayushman Bharat was launched in 2018 with its twin pillars of Health & Wellness Centers (HWCs) and Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) with bidirectional linkages between the two for providing the full range of services across the continuum of care. The first AB-HWC was launched by Hon. Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on the 14th of April 2018 at Jhangla in Bijapur District of Chhattisgarh.
The 50,025 operational AB-HWCs are now spread across 678 districts, and include 27,890 Sub Health Centres, 18,536 Primary Health Centres and 3,599 Urban Primary Health Centres. Together, these AB-HWC have witnessed over 28.10 crore footfalls of which over 53% per cent are women who sought care at these centres. More than 6.43 crore people have been screened for hypertension, 5.23 crore for diabetes and 6.14 crore people for cancers. About 1.0 crore people are being provided free drugs for the treatment of hypertension and about 60 lakhs for diabetes.
The Health & Wellness Centers provide CPHC services to people and sustain the efforts for provision of reproductive, maternal, neonatal, child, adolescent and nutrition (RMNCHA+N) services and control of communicable diseases. They also focus on disease prevention, especially for chronic and non-communicable diseases, wellness through community engagement and creating awareness about health lifestyles, appropriate nutrition and physical activities such as Yoga.