New Delhi: Announcing that more than 50,000 Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB HWCs) have been established in the country, Union Health Minister, Dr Harsh Vardhan plans to meet the target of making 1.5 lakh AB-HWCs operational by December 2022.
The break up of AB HWCs showed that maximum numbers of such centers have been functional in Maharashtra with a total of 6381 including 4117 SHC,1825 PHC and 439 UPHC followed by Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, and others.
A recent release by the Government in this regard stated, "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 the protection of vulnerable groups, such as the newborn, elderly and those with co-morbidities.
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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 healthy 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% per cent 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 with free drugs for the treatment of hypertension and about 60 lakhs for diabetes.
Focus on wellness is one of the novel interventions under the ABHWC Programme. Over 30 lakhs of wellness sessions have been conducted at these centres including activities such as Yoga, Zumba, Community Walks, Shirodhara, Meditation etc.
Focus on wellness is one of the novel interventions under the ABHWC Programme. Over 30 lakhs of wellness sessions have been conducted at these centres including activities such as Yoga, Zumba, Community Walks, Shirodhara, Meditation etc.
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 teleconsultation services to 'Spokes', i.e. Health & Wellness Centres (HWC).
State-wise functional AB-HWCs as on 18.11.2020
SN
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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