Bengaluru: The State Government is working on an ambitious project to upgrade the Primary Health Centres (PHCs)  to ensure quality healthcare to every citizen in the State, said Health and Medical Education Minister Dr. K. Sudhakar.

 He was speaking to the media after a meeting with Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa where he briefed CM about the proposed model PHCs here yesterday.

The Minister said that people were of the opinion that community healthcare was better in the neighbouring States, but Yediyurappa has a dream to provide best healthcare services in the country. This project was in tune with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s dream to establish health and wellness centres in every village. 

There were 2,380 PHCs in the State with one per 30,000 people. The project was aimed at constructing new PHCs to fill the gap and upgrade the existing ones, he said and added that the current bed capacity of PHCs would be increased from 6 to 12 and 12 to 20. Each PHC would be provided with 3-4 doctors including a Ayush and lady doctor instead of single medical officer. The building would have facilities like yoga and wellness centre, a well-equipped laboratory to facilitate basic blood tests etc., radiology centre with X-ray unit, good quality camera and TV to facilitate expert doctor consultation through tele-medicine, he added.

Houses for docs, nursing staff

Dr. Sudhakar said lack of good housing facility had been one of the main reasons why doctors were not ready to serve in rural areas and PHCs. In order to address this problem and to ensure staff availability at any given point of time, the model PHCs will include residential facility with 2 BHK housing for doctor and 1 BHK for nurse and ANM staff.

e-Hospital

He said e-Hospital facility would be provided to all PHCs to connect with Super Specialty hospitals. Even a small x-ray report would be reviewed by specialist doctors sitting in Super Specialty Hospital. Community health centres, taluk and district hospitals would be upgraded. District Hospitals with 200-bed capacity would be upgraded to 500-700 beds. Quality healthcare will be made available at all districts. 

Ambulance service

The Minister said there was 1 ambulance per 1 lakh population earlier and now plans are afoot to have one ambulance for every 30,000 persons. The ambulance would be stationed in every PHC to shift critically ill patients to District Hospitals.