India has crossed a landmark milestone on the journey of universal healthcare with more than 50,000 (50,025) Ayushman Bharat – Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) now operational across the country.
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.
Aiming at providing Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) services to the communities closer to their homes, an ambitious target of establishing 1.5 lakh AB-HWCs by December 2022 has been set.
With more than 50,000 being established, 1/3 of the target has now been met, the press release issued by the Press Information Bureau said. This has led to improved access to affordable primary healthcare services for more than 25 crore people.
Together, these AB-HWC have had over 28.10 crore footfalls of which over 53% are women.
Union Minister of Health & Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan congratulated the States/UTs for their efforts in operationalizing 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 Minister 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.
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.