{"id":18077,"date":"2018-04-02T14:22:03","date_gmt":"2018-04-02T08:52:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=18077"},"modified":"2018-04-02T14:30:24","modified_gmt":"2018-04-02T09:00:24","slug":"primary-health-centers-at-stake-one-doctor-for-most-phcs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/primary-health-centers-at-stake-one-doctor-for-most-phcs\/","title":{"rendered":"Primary health centers at stake: one doctor for most PHCs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong><u>Context:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare recently provided an alarming report on the availability of doctors in Primary Health Centre(PHCs).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Highlights of the report: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Out of <strong>25,650 primary health centers<\/strong> (PHCs) in the country, <strong>15,700 (61.2%) <\/strong>function with one doctor each.<\/li>\n<li>As many as <strong>1,974 (7.69%)<\/strong> PHCs do not have even a single doctor.<\/li>\n<li><strong>9,183 (35.8%)<\/strong> of the total number of PHCs do not have a lab technician.<\/li>\n<li><strong>4,744 (18.4%)<\/strong> do not have a pharmacist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State wise ranking of PHC\u2019s functioning with only one doctor: worst performing states: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Gujarat \u2013 <strong>100% of 1,392 PHCs <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Sikkim, Himachal Pradesh and Mizoram\u2019s &#8211; ranges between <strong>84% and 87%<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Karnataka &#8211; <strong>6% of 1,973 PHCs <\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Kerala &#8211; <strong>7%<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State wise ranking of PHC\u2019s functioning with only one doctor: better performing states: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Tamil Nadu &#8211; <strong>4% of 1,362 PHCs<\/strong><\/li>\n<li>Maharashtra &#8211; <strong>8% of 1814 PHCs<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Major reasons for doctors keeping away for rural areas:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>lack of safety and adequate protection for doctors,<\/li>\n<li>political interference,<\/li>\n<li>pest-infested accommodation,<\/li>\n<li>lack of basic amenities like electricity and potable water, and<\/li>\n<li>blame game of the locals without holistic approach to an issue.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Primary health centers:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Primary Health Centre(PHCs) is <strong>state-owned<\/strong> rural health care facilities in\u00a0India.<\/li>\n<li>They are essentially <strong>single-physician clinics<\/strong> usually with facilities for minor surgeries.<\/li>\n<li>They are part of the <strong>government-funded\u00a0<\/strong>public health system.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Note:<\/strong> Presently there are <strong>28,863 PHCs<\/strong> in India.<\/li>\n<li>The <strong>Alma Ata Declaration<\/strong> in 1978 gave an insight into the understanding of primary health care.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>According to the Alma Ata Declaration, primary health care should include: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>education concerning prevailing health problems<\/li>\n<li>methods of identifying, preventing and controlling health problems,<\/li>\n<li>promotion of food supply and proper nutrition and adequate supply of safe water and basic sanitation,<\/li>\n<li>maternal and child health care, including family planning,<\/li>\n<li>immunization against major infectious diseases,<\/li>\n<li>prevention and control of locally endemic diseases,<\/li>\n<li>appropriate treatment of common diseases and injuries,<\/li>\n<li>promotion of mental health and<\/li>\n<li>provision of essential drugs.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>According to the Indian Public Health Standards (IPHS) guidelines, each 24\/7 PHC should include: <\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a minimum of two doctors,<\/li>\n<li>a desirable third doctor,<\/li>\n<li>three nurses,<\/li>\n<li>one lab technician and<\/li>\n<li>one pharmacist.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Significance of primary health centers:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The primary health centers are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>essential to meet most healthcare needs,<\/li>\n<li>first point of contact for patients, and<\/li>\n<li>core of preventive, promotive, curative and rehabilitative healthcare.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Role of primary health centers:<\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Main principles of primary health centers are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>equity,<\/li>\n<li>health promotion and disease prevention,<\/li>\n<li>community participation,<\/li>\n<li>appropriate health technology and<\/li>\n<li>multisectoral approach.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Organizational and management key elements:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>strategic management,<\/li>\n<li>decentralization,<\/li>\n<li>coordination and<\/li>\n<li>development of strategic systems.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong><u>Way ahead: <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Increasing usage of <strong>tele-medicine, <\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>Note:<\/strong> Telemedicineis the use of\u00a0telecommunication\u00a0and\u00a0information technology\u00a0to provide\u00a0clinical health care\u00a0from a distance.<\/li>\n<li>Renovation of the <strong>public health infrastructure<\/strong>,<\/li>\n<li>Reorientation of <strong>policies<\/strong>, and<\/li>\n<li>Adequate <strong>national health system<\/strong> in place to take care of both patients and doctors.<\/li>\n<li>As a major government initiative, the umbrella scheme <strong>Ayushman Bharat programme<\/strong>, sounds promising enough.<\/li>\n<li>The programme aims to address health holistically, in primary, secondary and tertiary care systems, covering both prevention and health promotion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/ayushman-bharat-programme\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Know more about Ayushman Bharat programme<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Context: The Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare recently provided an alarming report on the availability of doctors in Primary Health Centre(PHCs). Highlights of the report: Out of 25,650 primary health centers (PHCs) in the country, 15,700 (61.2%) function with one doctor each. As many as 1,974 (7.69%) PHCs do not have&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/primary-health-centers-at-stake-one-doctor-for-most-phcs\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Primary health centers at stake: one doctor for most PHCs<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":5141,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18077","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured-editorials","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/07\/public-health.jpg?fit=1000%2C500&ssl=1","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704899984},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5141"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}