HYDERABAD: With just 24 per cent out of the required number of primary health centres (PHCs) currently existing in the State, Telangana is facing a stark shortage in round-the-clock healthcare, according to the latest report by NITI Aayog. The report titled ‘Health Index 2019’ said that in comparison to the report’s recommendation of one 24x7 PHCs per 1,00,000 population, Telangana has only 24 per cent of the required number. While there should be about 400 24x7 PHCs for the State’s 4 crore population, there are only 96 as per the report.
However, G Srinivas Rao, Director of Public Health, is not too fazed by the statistics. Explaining the same, Srinivas said, “There is a grading system for the 24x7 PHCs and CHCs. When these healthcare centres are graded, they should have human resources at par with the Indian Public Healthcare Standards. Hardly, 33 per cent of the CHCs are qualified. We need to have specialists in those CHCs. The major issue is if I have 49 CHCs, I do not have 49 specialists to tackle procedures like C-sections,” he added.
Meanwhile, the report also said that apart from 24x7 PHCs, there is a 16 per cent shortfall in the total number of PHCs. There is also a staggering 53 per cent shortfall in CHCs, in the state, as per 2018 records by the Union government.
Srinivas further adds, “However, this is not a matter of concern. For a PHC to get the accreditation as a 24x7 PHCs, there just needs to be two extra staff nurses and a minimum of 10 deliveries every month. However, the brunt of so many deliveries cannot be just put on the PHCs. Deliveries need to happen at CHCs and other secondary level healthcare centres. In any case, if PHCs get complicated delivery cases, the patient has to be rushed to a better equipped healthcare centres.” This is interesting to note considering that the Health Index specifically cites, “The importance of functional 24x7 Primary Healthcare Centres is to reduce the workload of Higher Level Facilities.”