Over 70,000 health, wellness centres set up under Ayushman Bharat: Ministry

The Union ministry for health and family welfare (MoHFW) informed on Sunday that the government has achieved its planned target of operationalising 70,000 Ayushman Bharat- health and wellness centres (AB-HWCs) ahead of time. The government had earlier set March 31 as the deadline for realising the target.

The ministry added in its statement that the government is increasing the workforce of the health care centres which now includes a trained non-physician health worker with BSc Nursing/BAMS qualification, community health officer (CHO) and primary care team of health workers.

The ministry also said that the AB-HWCs are not only providing services related to communicable diseases but also for non-communicable diseases such as hypertension, diabetes and cancer. Preventive health care services are also provided through the health and wellness centres and the ministry said that so far 9.1 crore screenings for hypertension, 7.4 crores screenings for diabetes, 4.7 crore screenings for oral cancer, 2.4 crores screenings for breast cancer in women and 1.7 crore screenings for cervical cancer in women have been done.

The essential diagnostics list and the list of essential medicines have both been expanded, according to the ministry and tele-consultation services of more than 9.45 lakh have been provided by the HWCs till now.

The health ministry also highlighted the role played by the AB-HWCs during the coronavirus pandemic, both for the prevention of Covid-19 as well as for enabling other essential health services.

The government has also expanded the AB-HWC to include pregnancy care and child birth, infant health care services, health care services for children, family planning, oral health care and emergency medical services.

Ayushman Bharat, the government’s flagship scheme which was launched in April 2018, aims to achieve the target of 150,000 sub-health centres and primary health centres in urban and rural areas by December 2022.