VIJAYAWADA: Soft launch of the Family Physician Concept across the State will be held on October 21 and Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy will officially launch the initiative in January 2023, said Principal Secretary (Health, Medical and Family Welfare) MT Krishna Babu.
Speaking to TNIE on the State government’s flagship programme on Tuesday, Krishna Babu said the Family Physician Concept will provide quality healthcare at village-level as a preventive measure. “The Concept will reduce the load on secondary and tertiary hospitals,’’ he said.Krishna Babu also said that for every two mandals, there will be one primary health centre (PHC) with two medical officers, three nursing staff, one pharmacist and lab technician. To continue medical services, an officer at community health centre (CHC) and four medical officers at district medical and health office will be kept in reserve.
The Principal Secretary asserted that each PHC will cater to the needs of 13 villages and six to seven villages will be mapped to each medical officer. “Every doctor should visit villages mapped on alternative days and twice a month in mobile medical units (MMU), which are equipped with more than 50 types of equipment such as ECG machines and medical tests will also be available.
A non-communicable diseases (NCD) survey will be provided to the family physician and they will give the most preference to the patients notified in the NCD survey.” The visiting doctor will take care of the health of schoolchildren and Anganwadi children on every visit. Adding to these they will visit bedridden patients, who need referral treatment and Aarogyasri services. Postnatal and prenatal women will be brought to the PHCs by the Asha workers.
They are providing telemedicine services in the hub and spoke model by mapping VHCs to PHCs and PHCs to district hubs to provide emergency medication and super speciality services, he added.He also stated that currently a total of 676 MMUs are available in the State and there is a need for another 260 vehicles, which will be ready by the end of December.
The Principal Secretary said that the basic structure of primary healthcare has been revamped and in addition to 6,313 sub-centres, they have sanctioned 3,719 additional Dr YSR Village Health Clinics (VHCs) totalling 10,032, and each of these clinics serve 2,000 rural population. He said that the construction of 3,200 VHCs has been completed and the remaning will be completed by December.
He said that VHCs will provide basic primary healthcare with one ANM, one mid-level health provider renamed as community health officer-CHO. The post will be filled by BSc Nursing and Asha workers and OPD, antenatal, postnatal services, disease control programmes, NCD screening, FP services, Immunisation, diagnostics (14 tests), dispensing of medicines (67 types), yoga and wellness activities services will be provided.
676 MOBILE MEDICAL UNITS READY
Principal Secretary (Health, Medical and Family Welfare) MT Krishna Babu stated that a total of 676 MMUs are available in the State and there is a need for another 260 vehicles, which will be ready soon