Rajya Sabha hears updates on modernization of Rural Healthcare facilities in Uttarakhand

New Delhi, March 28: Uttarakhand is witnessing a good pace in modernization of Rural Healthcare facilities. , funds have been released to the state to strengthen their health-care systems including rural medical facilities so as to provide universal access to equitable, affordable and quality healthcare services.

MoS for Health and Family Welfare Ashwini Kumar said in Rajya Sabha that National Health Mission (NHM) is the flagship programme of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, encompassing two sub-Missions, National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) and National Urban Health Mission (NUHM).

However, Public Health is a state subject. Under the National Health Mission(NHM), support is provided to States/UTs to strengthen their health systems for the provision of accessible, affordable and quality healthcare to all the population in rural areas based on the proposals of States in their Programme Implementation Plans.

Details of amount sanctioned for Hospital Strengthening and New Constructions/Renovation for the Financial Year 2014-15 to 2017-18 for the state of Uttarakhand is given below:

Statement Showing the SPIP Approval/ Sanctioned under Hospital Strengthening and New Constructions/ Renovation and Setting up for the F.Y. 2014-15 to 2017-18 for the state of Uttarakhand.

2. The above approvals contain (1) Hospital Strengthening - Up- Gradation of District Hospitals, Sub Divisional Hospitals, Community Health Centres (CHCs), Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and Sub Health Centre (SHCs) (2)New Constructions/ Renovation and Setting up of CHCs, PHCs, SHCs/Sub Centres.

Under NHM, the resource envelope of any State/UT is determined by the socio-economic factor and health indicators of the State/UT.

In view of above, 3 Himalayan hilly states namely Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, and Uttarakhand have been given a weightage of 3.2 times over other states. Apart from this, hilly and tribal areas enjoy special dispensation under NHM, the details are given below:

Special dispensation within NHM provided to hilly and tribal areas

Under National Health Mission (NHM), financial and technical support is provided to States to strengthen the Public Health system including up gradation of existing or construction of new infrastructure.

The population Norms for setting up of public health facilities in the General areas are as under:

• Sub Centre: 1 per 5,000 population
• Primary Health Centre: 1 per 30,000 population
• Community Health Centre: 1 per 1,20,000 population

The populations & other Norms for setting up of public health facilities in the hilly and tribal areas are as under:

• Sub Centre: 1 per 3,000 populations. A new norm has also been adopted for setting up a SHC based on ‘time to care’ within 30 minutes by walk from a habitation has been adopted for selected district of hilly and Desert areas. It has also been decided to strengthen Sub-Health Centres based on 'time to care' within minutes by walk from habitations has been adopted in selected districts of hilly States and desert areas
• Primary Health Centre: 1 per 20,000 population
• Community Health Centre: 1 per 80,000 population

Provision of Mobile Medical Units (MMU) in hilly and tribal areas

• Relaxation has been made available on a case to case basis for hilly/tribal/desert areas, where the populations are widely dispersed and the geographical terrain is difficult.
• In view of this, a relaxed norm of one MMU per 10 lakh population in cases where patients served through existing MMUs exceeds 60 patients per day in plain areas and 30 patients per day in hilly areas, on a case to case basis, have also been approved.