BHUBANESWAR: The state government on Wednesday announced plans to open eight urban public health centres (UPHCs) in seven districts to address the growing healthcare needs of people.
The UPHCs will come up at Jajpur and Vyasanagar in Jajpur district, Rairangpur in Mayurbhanj, Soro in Balasore, Rajgangpur in Sundargarh, Talcher in Angul and Jholasahi in Cuttack besides one at Malkangiri.
The national urban health mission (NUHM) framework mandates UPHC in every 50,000 urban population. The geographical and social distribution of UPHCs within an urban area will maximise access for the urban poor.
Health secretary Shalini Pandit said the upcoming UPHCs will address the health needs and provide priority services to the urban poor, unorganised workers, including in slums, and people living in the urban areas. “The urban health facility will not only integrate reproductive and child health services but also integrate all vertical disease control programmes and non-communicable diseases programmes. It will also also cover the preventive, promotive and curative services,” she said.
The UPHCs will provide free consultation on specialist services as per the need. Basic lab diagnosis/laboratory investigations will be available. As per the essential drug list for the primary healthcare services, free drugs will be available in the UPHCs.
The health secretary has intimated collectors and CDMOs of the seven districts about the approval of the government for establishment of new health facilities in their respective areas. So far, the state has 70 UPHCs. The state government has also decided to set up 12 more sub-divisional hospitals (SDHs), 20 CHCs and 306 PHCs in phases. The decision has been taken as per the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) guidelines to improve the quality of healthcare delivery.
As per IPHS recommendations, the sanctioned bed strength will be increased to one bed per 1,000 population and uniformity of the sanctioned beds will be maintained for different categories of facilities. At present, Odisha has 0.34 beds for 1,000 population.