Over 80,000 health and wellness centres set up under Ayushman Bharat: Govt

Atotal of 80,701 health and wellness centres (AB-HWCs) have been operationalised across the country under the Ayushman Bharat scheme launched on April 14, 2018, Rajya Sabha was told on Tuesday.

This includes 54,618 Sub-Health Centres (SHC), 21,898 Primary Health Centres (PHC) and 4,155 Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC), as on December 8, 2021, Minister of State for Health Bharati Pravin Pawar said in a written reply.

In February 2018, the Government of India announced 1,50,000 Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) to be established across India by December 2022. The government is setting up AB-HWCs to deliver Comprehensive Primary Health Care (CPHC) that includes preventive, promotive, curative, palliative and rehabilitative services which is universal, free, and close to the community, Pawar said.

”Since the launch of the first AB-HWC on April 14, 2018, a total of 80,701 AB-HWCs have been operationalised across the country. This includes SHC-HWC- 54,618, PHC-HWC21,898 and UPHC-4,155 (Data as on December 8, 2021),” she said.

All the operationalised AB-HWCs are required to screen all people above 30 years of age in their area, for five common non-communicable diseases – Hypertension, Diabetes Mellitus, Oral Cancer, Breast cancer and Cervical Cancer. The SHC-HWCs screen people for non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and PHC-HWCs or secondary/tertiary health centres ensure diagnosis and treatment initiation for people identified with the diseases, Pawar said.

The AB-HWCs also enable a continuum of care as patients diagnosed at secondary/tertiary health centres are referred back to the SHC-HWCs for follow-up care. There is a dedicated AB-HWC portal to track and monitor the number of people being screened and brought to AB-HWCs, the minister said.

The portal also features to report facility-wise information on the predefined criteria. It includes details of footfalls, the number of persons screened, diagnosed, and put on treatment for five common NCDs. The portal also supports states and districts by providing facility-wise and consolidated data for planning and monitoring, Pawar added.