Mysuru: ‘Namma Clinics have been a hit in Mysuru, with a lot of poor people getting health benefits at this next door health facility. As such, the Health and Family Welfare Department is mulling on establishing three more such Clinics in the district.

Three Namma Clinics were set up by the State Government in city — Hootagalli, Srirampura and Yaraganahalli (Rammanahalli) and three others across the district — H.D. Kote, K.R. Nagar and T. Narasipur in Dec.2022 under the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM). Namma Clinics will help to screen diseases, especially non-communicable and lifestyle diseases at an early stage, thereby making treatment much quicker and mitigating life threatening complications.

These Clinics function from 9 am to 4 pm in the premises of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) as Sub-centres. Since the launch of Namma Clinics 15 months ago, thousands of poor patients have benefited from this health facility. Considering the growing popularity, the Health Department extended the timings of two clinics in each district of the State till 8 pm.

From April 2023 till the end of January 2024, over 46,000 people have visited the 6 clinics in the district, of whom 23,055 are men and 23,843 are women.

According to District Health Officer (DHO) Dr. P.C. Kumaraswamy, the urban population is growing by the day and considering the increasing pressure at PHCs, the Government set up Namma Clinics to cater to the health needs of the urban poor.

Maintaining that the clinics in Mysuru district have been receiving good response from public, he said there are plans to open three more clinics. Free medicines were given to 41,940 patients while 11,465 patients underwent diagnosis at the diagnostic labs in the clinics, he added.