Centre adding more services to Ayushman Bharat health centres

Subject : Schemes

Concept :

India’s five-year-old Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) programme, which has grown to more than 1.60 lakhs centres and registered a footfall of over 178.87 crore (as of June end), is undergoing its biggest ever expansion of services, confirmed sources in the Health Ministry.
Under the latest expansion spree, the Central government is adding services, including screening, prevention, control & management of non-communicable diseases, care for common ophthalmic & ENT problems, basic oral health care, elderly and palliative health care services, emergency medical services, and screening and management of mental health ailments.

Essential list of medicines and diagnostics has been expanded

The essential list of medicines and diagnostics has been expanded to make available 171 medicines at Primary HWCs and 105 at Secondary Health Care-HWC and 63 diagnostics at PHC-HWC and 14 at SHC-HWC.

New cadre of Community Health Officers

A new cadre of Community Health Officers, 1.29 lakh in position, has been introduced at the level of SHC-HWC.
They will act as clinicians as well as public health managers.They will lead the team of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA), Anganwadi Workers (AWW) and Auxiliary Nurse Midwifes (ANM).

About AB-HWCs

Started in 2018, AB-HWCs aims to deliver Comprehensive Primary Health Care, that is universal and free to users.
It focuses on wellness and the delivery of an expanded range of services closer to the community.
These centres deliver a range of comprehensive health care services like maternal and child health, services to address communicable and non-communicable diseases and services for elderly and palliative care.
AB-HWCs provide free essential medicines and diagnostic services, teleconsultation, and health promotion including wellness activities like Yoga.
Target
1,50,000 Sub Health Centres(SHC), Primary Health Centres (PHC) and Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) to be transformed as Health Wellness Centres by
As of 8 July 2023, there are 1,60,074 functional HWCs in India.
As on June 30, 2023, more than 2.16 crores wellness sessions have been conducted with participation of 23.83 crores individuals
Key Components
The delivery of comprehensive primary health carethrough HWCs involve is complex task as it requires a paradigm shift at all levels of health systems.

PM-Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission

The scheme aims at strengthening healthcare infrastructure across the country.
Its objective is to fill gaps in public health infrastructure, especially in critical care facilities and primary care in both urban and rural areas.
Through this, critical care services will be available in all the districts of the country with more than five lakh population through exclusive critical care hospital blocks, while the remaining districts will be covered through referral services.
It will provide support to 17,788 rural Health and Wellness Centres in 10 ‘high focus’ states and establish 11,024 urban Health and Wellness Centres across the country.
People will have access to a full range of diagnostic services in the public healthcare system through a network of laboratories across the country.
Integrated public health labs will also be set up in all districts, giving people access to “a full range of diagnostic services” through a network of laboratories across the country.
All the public health labs will be connected through the Integrated Health Information Portal, which will be expanded to all states and UTs.
An IT-enabled disease surveillance system will be established through a network of surveillance laboratories at block, district, regional and national levels.

Institutions to be set-up under the scheme:

Under the scheme, a national institution for one health, four new national institutes for virology, a regional research platform for WHO (World Health Organization) South East Asia Region, nine biosafety level-III laboratories, and five new regional national centres for disease control will be set up.
Biosafety Level 3: The pathogens that can cause serious health hazards are worked under biosafety level 3.