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India records a landmark milestone with the operationalization of more than 50,000 Ayushman Bharat Health & Wellness Centres (HWCs)
Dr Harsh Vardhan congratulates States/UTs on this achievement
The contribution of HWCs in COVID response and management is unique: Dr Harsh Vardhan
6.43 cr people screened for hypertension, 5.23 cr for diabetes and 6.14 cr for cancers
By PIB Delhi
India has crossed a landmark milestone on the journey of universal healthcare. More than 50,000 (50,025) Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) are now operational across the country. Aiming at providing Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) services to the communities closer to their homes, 1.5 lakh AB-HWCs are to be established by December 2022. With more than 50,000 having been established, 1/3 of the target has been met. This has led to improved access to affordable primary healthcare services for more than 25 crore people.
Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare congratulated the States/UTs for their efforts in operationalising the HWCs despite the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. “This has been possible due to the joint efforts of the Center and the States/UTs in planning, monitoring at all levels, standardization of processes, the flexibility for adaptation provided to the States/UTs, and building on the health systems created thus far”, he stated. The HFM specially 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 and for supporting millions of people with necessary services in these difficult times. “They are the backbone of the healthcare delivery system. Their contribution during the COVID period has been exemplary”, he said. HWCs have helped in interventions such as risk communication, contact tracing, community surveillance and early identification of cases, and seamless provisioning of non-COVID essential health services for ensuring protection of vulnerable groups, such as the newborn, elderly and those with co-morbidities.
#COVID19 screening at a HWC in Assam
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 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. The HWC team consists of a trained Community Health Officer, one or two Health Workers and 5-8 ASHAs. This team has well defined tasks which intend to deliver public health functions and primary health care by bringing health-care services closer to the community.
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% percent 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 treatment of hypertension and about 60 lakhs for diabetes.
Community Health Officer screening for hypertension at a HWC in Tripura
Focus on wellness is one of the novel interventions under the ABHWC Programme. Over 30 lakhs wellness sessions have been conducted at these centres including activities such as Yoga, Zumba, Community Walks, Shirodhara, Meditation etc.
#Yoga session at Phubasahi Khordha HWC, Odisha
HWCs also provide a strong backbone for the implementation of the eSanjeevani platform of Health Ministry which includes the eSanjeevani Patient-to-Doctor OPD and eSanjeevani-HWC which provides Doctor-to-Doctor teleconsultation service. 23,103 HWCs have started providing teleconsultation services to citizens. More than 7.5 lakh teleconsultations have already been conducted through these platforms. The eSanjeevani-HWC was rolled out in November 2019. It is to be implemented in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres in a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model, by December 2022. States need to set up dedicated ‘Hubs’ in Medical Colleges and District hospitals to provide tele-consultation services to ‘Spokes’, i.e. Health & Wellness Centres (HWC).
State wise functional AB-HWCs as on 18.11.2020SN STATE Functional AB-HWCs as on 18112020 SHC PHC UPHC TOTAL 1 Andaman & Nicobar Islands 58 17 5 80 2 Andhra Pradesh 1122 1145 241 2508 3 Arunachal Pradesh 91 38 4 133 4 Assam 878 379 52 1309 5 Bihar 207 877 98 1182 6 Chandigarh 33 2 35 7 Chhattisgarh 1450 402 45 1897 8 Dadra & Nagar Haveli 52 8 0 60 9 Daman & Diu 26 4 0 30 10 Delhi Not implementing the Programme 11 Goa 9 54 5 68 12 Gujarat 3523 1108 222 4853 13 Haryana 159 364 100 623 14 Himachal Pradesh 275 422 6 703 15 Jammu & Kashmir 505 305 16 826 16 Jharkhand 852 132 52 1036 17 Karnataka 1572 1896 336 3804 18 Kerala 0 733 83 816 19 Ladakh 0 0 0 0 20 Lakshadweep 0 3 0 3 21 Madhya Pradesh 3026 1128 130 4284 22 Maharashtra 4117 1825 439 6381 23 Manipur 111 39 1 151 24 Meghalaya 70 34 19 123 25 Mizoram 44 54 8 106 26 Nagaland 101 47 7 155 27 Odisha 304 1225 86 1615 28 Puducherry 77 37 2 116 29 Punjab 1607 346 93 2046 30 Rajasthan 131 1859 116 2106 31 Sikkim 43 13 0 56 32 Tamil Nadu 858 1371 453 2682 33 Telangana 274 624 221 1119 34 Tripura 266 32 5 303 35 Uttar Pradesh 3509 1468 391 5368 36 Uttarakhand 262 246 36 544 37 West Bengal 2311 268 325 2904 Total 27890 18536 3599 50025
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