HYDERABAD: On the lines of those in Greater Hyderabad, Basti Dawakhanas will come up in all other five cities administered by municipal corporations in the State to provide better medicare to poor and needy. These clinics will be established in Greater Warangal, Karimnagar, Nizamabad, Khammam and Ramagundam.
TK Sreedevi, mission director of Telangana Mission for Elimination of Poverty in Municipal Areas in the department of municipal administration and urban development, has directed the five municipal commissioners to identify, in coordination with the district medical and health officers (DMHOs) concerned, suitable locations for setting up 'basti dawakhanas' where there are no Urban Primary Health Centres. Detailed information is to be submitted by the first week of July for taking necessary action at the earliest, for which the commissioners and DMHOs have been provided with the detailed format. The department of health, medical and family welfare will provide the required infrastructure, staff and medicines.
For setting up 'basti' clinics, the corporations have been asked to identify suitable sites as per National Urban Health Mission guidelines. Officials of state directorate of municipal administration said 'basti dawakhanas' would be set up in areas inhabited by communities like commercial sex workers, street children, rag-pickers and migrants who are at a high risk of adverse health outcome.
These places should have a population of 5,000 to 10,000 persons and do not have UPHCs. The proposed clinics should be located in close proximity to slums — about half a kilometre from a slum or slum-like habitation — and preferably be inside the slum. If more than one slum exists in the catchment area, it should be so located that maximum beneficiaries can access it conveniently. The space for each 'basti dawakhana' has to be a minimum of around 350 sft and a maximum of 500 sft.
Services one can expect
OPD (consultation), basic lab diagnosis (Hb, blood grouping, blood sugar, rapid plasma reagin (RPR), rapid test for dengue, malaria, urine sugar and urine pregnancy test (UPT), drug, contraceptive dispensing, treatment of acute simple illness, immunisation services, family planning, antenatal and post-natal care, screening of non-communicable diseases such as BP, blood sugar, cancers.