In order to make healthcare facilities accessible in remote areas adjoining Haridwar and Rishikesh, Uttarakhand government and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) have signed an MoU to develop primary healthcare centres (PHC) at Raiwala, Mother and Child Centre at Ramnagar Danda, Primary Healthcare Centre at Thano and State Allopathic dispensary, Dhanaulti in Uttarakhand.
As a part of the collaboration, AIIMS, Rishikesh has ushered in a big programme to set up pathology labs and primary healthcare facilities at Raiwala and the adjoining rural areas of Haridwar and Rishikesh.
Vacant residential rooms of doctors at PHC, Raiwala will be utilised to provide diagnostic facilities, based on the recent inspection carried out by AIIMS team.
This will help a population of 50,000 people from remote areas like Haripur Kalan, Khandgaon, Gauharimafi, Prateet Nagar, Khairi Kalan and Khairi Khurd to get access to primary healthcare facilities which earlier used to take minimum 12 km commute to get medical care at Haridwar or Rishikesh.
The union health ministry has also given permission to reopen PHCs in the state based on Uttarakhand’s work plan for National Health Mission (NHM) 2018-19. Around 39 previously closed PHCs will soon reopen in the state of Uttarakhand. In addition to this, the ministry has also allocated Rs.515.64 crore for the implementation of NHM policies in the state. In comparison to the budget of the previous financial year, there is an allocation of additional funds of Rs.90 crore this year.
The Centre also accepted the proposal of opening High Dependency Unit (HDU) in the hospitals for critical patients. These units will be brought into service in Haridwar, Rudrapur, Gopeshwar, Uttarkashi and Dehradun. With these, new ICUs will also be opened in the state. The Union government also gave the green signal to upgrade health and wellness centers in around 330 health centers in Uttarakhand. These wellness centers will be equipped to treat lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, blood pressure and other heart diseases.
Centre had announced in January this year to upgrade 1.5 lakh PHCs into wellness centres across the country. A budget of Rs.1,300 crore has been kept for upgrading the PHCs in the country. |